The blond vixen
by AlexRoseRusso
Summary: Set after the snake dance. Betty is attacked while walking home, then shows up a week later. It quickly becomes clear something very cruel has happened to her but she refuse to tell. While her friends try to solve the mystery, Betty develops an unhealthy habit or two in an attempt to find justice and peace. Little bit of an OC/Betty. Disclaimer: Riverdale characters aren't mine.
1. A real life night terror

Betty didn't know what she signed up for getting up on that stage. She thought she was buying a direct ticket to Jughead's life, all of it, Serpents and what not. Instead she bought a ticket to every Serpent's dirty fantasy. No one had understood why Jughead wanted little, innocent, sweet Betty Copper, but now they knew, all of them knew and they all wanted a piece of FB's cocky son's secret treasure. And the best part was how easy he had made it by leaving her unprotected trying to push her away.

It hadn't even been a week before someone followed the once again innocent looking Betty Cooper home from school a late night after working on the paper. She had barely turned the first corner when someone covered her mouth from behind with a gloved hand and lifted her off the road, ignoring her kicking, and innocent Betty wasn't going to be innocent ever again.

The day after her mother worried when she didn't come down for breakfast but with her daughter's habit of disappearing once she got caught up in something she shrugged it off. Archie felt weird when she didn't come out so he could walk her to school, but figured maybe she already went. When she didn't show up for school her teacher got suspicious and asked her friends if they had heard from her. None of them had, so Archie called Jughead and asked if he was with the blonde. He hadn't seen her in a week, not since that night. Soon all Riverdale was talking about was the missing high school girl and posters was hung up on every light pole and every bus stop. The news made a small video they sent every night, reminding people to report anything suspicious. The Coopers put out a bounty for a lead on their daughter but nothing helped. Betty was as if sunken into the ground.  
It was a week later when the young couple, Moose and Midge, who had learned nothing from their mistakes, were fooling around late at night in the outcasts of the forest that something changed. Moose wanted to go home, it was already late and he hadn't forgotten about getting shot, but Midge wanted to explore around the abandoned cabin that they had come across. Everything was locked and there was no indication that anyone had been out there in years. She tried peeking in through the windows but the curtains were pulled closed leaving no room for curious eyes. She gave up and walked around the house and through the backyard to get to Moose. She had to pull herself over a large fallen three on the way and when she sat foot on the other side, suddenly she felt something soft under her foot. She looked down and screamed. Moose came running, heroic to save his girlfriend yet terrified it might be the hood again. It wasn't. Instead Midge was on the ground holding a figure with a worrying amount of pale skin showing in the dark. She looked up at him with tears streaking down her face and pleaded with him to do something. He didn't think. He just shred his jacket to wrap around the figure and scooped her up in his arms, letting Midge lead the way to the car. Midge sat in the back with the girl. She kept her hand over her chest to assure herself that the rise and fall of the girl's chest was real. When they arrived at the hospital he ran in to get help and soon the young couple was left in the waiting room as everything around turned into chaos.

* * *

Archie Andrews was at Pop's with Veronica and Jughead when his phone rang. They had just spent yet another night out, looking for leads as to where Betty had gone and for each night that went by, they felt more and more helpless. Veronica was having troubles convincing her parents she would be safe with two strong men by her side and she wasn't sure how much longer she would be allowed to keep looking. So when Kevin's name flashed across the screen it was without much hope Archie reached out and answered, but soon his expression changed and he exchanged a few brief words with the caller before he quickly hung up and turned to his friends.

"That was Kevin, they found Betty. She is at the hospital." He told them briefly before running off with them in tow. When they arrived at the hospital everything was chaos. There were journalists everywhere and they were having a hard time getting in the front door. Inside wasn't much better. The place was swarming with police and medical staff and in the middle of the chaos sat the Coopers looking sick with worry. Archie spotted Kevin sitting a little from where his dad was shouting orders and went over to talk to him.

"Who found her?" He asked and Kevin just pointed tiredly at the young couple sitting in the corner looking equal parts exhausted and terrified.

"Midge stumpeled across her in the woods. It was a miracle really, an hour later and she would be dead." He said not really looking at them but at the space in front of him. Archie felt himself frown.

"The woods? She cant have been there the whole time!" He exclaimed confused and Kevin shook his head finally looking at them.

"They won't be able to tell what really happened till she wakes up, but they have a few theories. Hopefully, Betty herself can fill in the blanks." Archie sighed as all three of the sank into the waiting-room chairs. The last time they had been there was when his father was shot. Now his best friend was in there, being treated for god knows what.

"How is she? I mean in what state-?" He asked but Kevin just shook his head sadly.

"They won't tell. Nothing is getting out until Betty is awake. We just have to wait." And so they did. For five agonizing hours straight until finally a doctor came out and consulted with the Coopers who instantly burst into tears. He left them quietly and went over to the ground of friends who were desparetly trying ot pick something up on their friend.

"Which one of you are Kevin Keller?" He asked and Kevin held up his hand with a confused expression.

"Come with me, she is asking for you." He said and they all frowned.

"Why me?" Kevin asked voicing their thoughts. The doctor sighed and answered in a hopeless voice.

"She said and I quote: 'No I won't tell. Not to anyone. Only Kevin, Kevin knows how to shut his mouth. I'll tell Kevin but only if you all go. Go away I don't want you to know.' So I am guessing she really wants to talk to you." Kevin just nodded and followed the doctor. They all waited angstfully till Sheriff Keller came out two hours later.

"You can all go home. Nothing else is happening today." They all started to protest, wanting to at least see her with their own eyes before leaving.

"Sherif Keller what happened to her?" Veronica asked and the Sheriff simply shook his head.

"She refused to tell anyone but Kevin. He told us only what we needed to know, the rest is her story to tell. Go home, she'll see you when she is ready." He said. Archie protested again.

"But sheriff Keller-"

"Go home Archie. All of you should just go home." And then he left. They looked at each other a little weary neither of them wanting to leave. Behind them the Coopers had readied for a long day it seemed, Alice sleeping on Halls shoulder already. Admitting defeat, they went home. They returned to the hospital the following two days but were denied access, Jughead got himself kicked out when he threatened the nurse who wouldn't tell him her room-number.

Finally, after two days, Archie spotted a light on in Betty's room. She didn't change, she just went straight to bed and the light turned off. Yet Archie went to bed assured that Betty was once again safe right next door.

The next day Alice Cooper gave her daughter a ride to school, although the school was only a few blocks away from their home. Betty walked the stairs as if nothing had ever happened and sat in class in her usual spot, ignoring the stares she got from her peers. No one dared to say a word and it made it that much easier. She ignored everyone until lunch came around. Deciding against possibly facing Cheryl's bluntness if she sat alone, she seeked comfort in her usual group and her one confidant. Walking to Kevin's side, she sent him a small smile and sat down next to him. He took her hand and looked at her worried.

"Are you-?" He didn't finish the question and she just gave a slight nod. Archie and Veronica came over quickly and sat down quietly not wanting to overwhelm her.

"It is so good to have you back B." Veronica finally said and reached over to take Betty's hand. Betty tensed but then wrapped her hand around Veronica's.

"Good to be back V." She answered and got a slight smile from everyone. No one said anything else about her disappearance and for a minute it was easy to believe Betty had just been sick a few days. The moment didn't last and Betty was picked up by her mom as soon as the last class ended, so when Jughead came by to see her she was already gone. Archie and Veronica meet him outside and filled him in. He wanted to go talk to her at her house, to check on her and make amends but was stopped by Kevin who had overheard the conversation.

"I think you might be the last person Betty wants to see right now, Jughead. No offense, but seriously just stay away." He warned him then disappeared before Jughead could answer. He felt attacked and puzzled but decided to follow his instructions, at least for know.


	2. The unexpected rescueteam

Over the next few days everyone was walking on eggshells. Betty seemed to pretend everything was normal, yet nothing really was, not even she. Archie walked her to school everyday and if he didn't walk her home then her mother picked her up. Under no circumstance would she walk alone. Everyone was trying to get her to tell what had happened, but she hadn't uttered a word since she had spilled it all to Kevin. After a while they partly accepted that she wasn't going to tell and they didn't want to pry to much, in respect of her trauma. She kept a steady routine: Get up early, polish off a perfect look, put on a fake smile and go down to eat breakfeast with her parents. To her it looked like they were bying the fake smile and absurd normallyty but as soon as she left her parents could exhchange their concern with one another. She would meet with Archie outside her house, go trough school as usual and then as soon as she got home; do her homework and then she would go to bed.

It wasn't until one day, when she had stayed behind to get feedback on an english essay and Archie had already left with Veronica, that that rutine changed.

Her mother was visiting Polly out of town and she wouldn't be able to pick her up before it was late. Betty stood frozen in place, staring out at the street where the light was slowly fading and bit her lip in anxiety. She couldn't walk home by herself surely, tho it was only a few blocks, after what happened the last time that was out of the question, but what other choice did she have? Maybe she could call Kevin and get him to come by or maybe the Sheriff would send a deputy if she asked? Help came from the most unexpected place when a voice sounded gently behind her in the hall, breaking her out of her dilemma filled haze.

"Betty?" It was Reggie who had just finished extra practice. He stood there in his blue and yellow football-jacket with slightly wet hair and looked worriedly at the fragile girl with an uncharacteristically concerned expression. She turned and looked back at him a little startled, then she looked back at the front doors and Reggie felt realization flow over him and came to an easy conclusion. "Do you want me to take you home?" He asked gently and she looked back at him surprised then nodded in relief, a small grateful smile breaking out on her face. It was an expression Reggie wasn't used to seeing, at least not directed towards him, but he liked it. He smiled back to her and walked past her, then stood still at the door, inviting her to catch up. They walked to his car and he opened the door for her and let her into the passenger seat. She thought about how absurd it was, and even that maybe she shouldn't get into a strange car, but she knew Reggie and while he may be a jerk at times she also knew he wouldn't hurt her. At least she hoped so.

"Thank you so much. I know it is silly-" She started but he cut her off with a chuckle and a smile as he started the engine.

"No, it is not Betty and it is fine, really I don't mind. Your house is in the same direction as mine anyway." Betty had a feeling that was a lie but she didn't say. Instead she asked Reggie about his practice and he started talking big and loud about football. It was nice, hearing about something other than herself for once. Everyone else were either talking about her or pretending to talk about something else but really it was about her. With Reggie she could just listen and smile to the details he talked about with such passion she didn't know he possessed. He pulled up at her house and she smiled again and thanked him. He told her again it was nothing to worry about and waited till she got inside the house, then he drove off.

* * *

That very same afternoon: Archie, Veronica and Jughead meet up with Kevin at Pop's demanding some answers about their friend. Kevin looked ambushed and insisted on not telling her secrets, then Jughead dropped the bomb: Sheriff Keller had arrested three Serpents for the abduction of Betty Cooper. Jughead seemed to be convinced it was a mistake, another injustice against the south side, although in reality maybe he was simply wishing it to be that way. To deny that his Serpent family had anything to do with the kidnapping of the girl he loved, was easier than to believe he had unintentionally put Betty in harms way. Whatever he believed it or not, the defending attitude with which he presented the news, fulled Kevin's anger against the other boy. Finally, he snapped, at least a little bit, and slipped up on his vow of silence to Betty.

"My dad arrested those Serpents because Betty pointed them out personally!" He exclaimed which rendered Jughead silent at least for a moment. Then he was asking questions again.

"What do you mean she pointed them out? I thought she had refused to talk to the police?" He demanded to know and Kevin simply snorted at his naivety.

"She refused to give a full testimony to anyone but me. I informed my dad about the importants and he asked her if she'd be alright to point out who did it. She said it was three Serpents who took her on her way from school, so he brought in the usual suspects and she took her picks. Now at least we have the ones who took her." He said and Veronica immediately picked up on the hidden meaning of his words while the boys were simply focused on his frustrated voice which had already started their adrenaline production.

"What do you mean at least? There is more?" She asked in horror and Kevin looked startled, realizing his slip up and then he sighed in defeat, knowing there was no way around the truth now that she had busted him. He couldn't lie to her face.

"All I'll tell you is that: The ones who abducted Betty, wasn't the same as the one who kept her captured. That, and that Betty is a fighter. A damn fucking world champion, you better trust me on that." With that he left the table and the diner, leaving the three friends alone to plan their next move as how to solve the mystery around Betty Cooper, her disappearance and her return. While Veronica and Archie planned actively, Jughead had his own inner battle going. Betty had pointed out three Serpents and Betty couldn't be lying, she wouldn't. But if Betty wasn't lying then hat meant that three of his own had gone after one of the only people who mattered to him and he didn't want to think that either. He didn't want to think the Serpents would go after any woman but least of all Betty. Then he realized he didn't really know the Serpents, not every Individual at least. So while the gang might be a group of decent people, of course there could be a few rotten apples. He remembered what Sweetpea had said when he came to South-side high: That someone would want to prove themselves by taking out FB's kid. Had someone tried to prove themselves by attacking Betty? The thought sent a chill through him. If they had then Betty was hurt because of him. He would find the piece of shit he swore to that.


	3. Open and closed again

The next day Betty was packing her bag, preparing for school when her mother came in with a weird, yet pleasant look on her face.

"Betty, Reggie Mantel is here to pick you up for school." She said and waited for her daughter's response. Betty looked surprised but not startled and then she smiled at her mother and thanked her before skipping out the door, grabbing her pink trenchcoat on the way. Alice watched from the door as her daughter said hello to Reggie who was standing back a few feet respectfully and as he walked her to the car, gently opening the door for her and closing it behind her before finding the drivers seat himself. She frowned a little before shrugging, deciding not to worry too much about her daughters pick of company. It seemed wise to have Betty around a strong guy until they had caught the one who captured her, even if that strong guy was Reggie Mantel. The Mantels were decent people in Alice's eyes but their son had a reputation of his own, and his position as captain for the football-team brought unwelcome memories of Jason Blossom. Still it was better than Archie Andrews and Alice had to remind herself that Betty wasn't Polly. She wasn't going to make the same mistakes, at least so Alice hoped.

Reggie and Betty walked together into school and sat in the classroom talking until the room filled up and the teacher arrived. Archie sent her a weird look as he sat down but she ignored him. For about a week that was all that happened. Betty came and left school with Reggie, but that was all they did, barely talking except on the ride back and forth. Then one day Reggie came over during lunch, to where she was with her friends: Veronica, Archie and Kevin. They all looked up at him, confused as to why he was approaching, but he didn't care about them: He only had eyes for Betty. Flashing her a small smile before his face turned grim.

"Football training is gonna be late today so I can't take you home right after school." He told her seeming almost regretful surprising every other person present. Betty just shrugged and smiled at him with a smile that reached her eyes for the first time in over three weeks.

"I could hang around and watch you play if you don't mind? I've got an article to work on anyway." She said and bashed her eyelashes. A grin spread on Reggie's face.

"Sure, that'd be great, I mean, if you are sure you won't be bored?" Betty shook her head so her curly ponytail dangled from side to side.

"Not at all – I'd love to see you play." She said and Veronica quickly chimmed in with a happy smile of her own.

"I could wait with you, if you don't mind B. Archie has got training too right?" She asked and the redhead nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, we could even go to Pop's afterwards if you want?" He suggested, already seeing the chance to get Betty away from school and maybe get some answers out of her. Betty bit her lip, unsure what to do as she hadn't been out of the house for weeks but one look at Reggie's smile and she had decided. Really, she didn't have a reason to say no, did she? She nodded excitedly and plastered on a smile.

"Sure, that sounds fun." Reggie reached over and gave her shoulder a light squeeze.

"It is a date." He stated before running off. Betty turned back to her friends and blushed when she saw the way they looked at her.

"What?" She asked and Veronica shrugged and smirked.

"Nothing, just when did you start dating Reggie?" She asked and ignored the way Archie tensed beside her and the murderous glare he suddenly sent after Reggie.

"We aren't. Really, he just picks me up before and after school." Betty denied, but no one bought it.

"He literally just said it was a date. Besides Reggie isn't the type to just give a girl a ride to school." Veronica pointed out but Betty just shrugged.

"It was nothing. It is nothing. He gave me a ride when it was getting dark last week and I guess it just became a habit." She repeated but it was a bad excuse and they all just shared a look, knowing she was either lying or in denial.

After school that day, Veronica and Betty changed out of their cheer-leading uniforms after cheer practice and went down to the brechers to watch the boys have their late night practice. Betty had been wearing the long sleve version of the training uniform but Veronica had decided not to ask about it and neither had the rest of the team. But as they sat on the brechers together, Betty with her laptop open and Veronica with her english book, Veronica couldn't help it anymore.

"Betty, between us girls-" Veronica started.

"I am not telling you what happened." Betty cut her off and Veronica huffed annoyed.

"Come on! You want us to figure it all out on our own?" she asked trying to lure her to tell her anyway.

"No, I actually prefer if you didn't at all. Look V, I just want to put it all behind me kay?" Veronica pouted a little but didn't push her further, respecting it was a delicate matter.

After practice the boys took the girls to Pops and they got milkshakes and joked around. Archie put his arm around Veronica and saw the way Reggie looked at the gesture with jealousy. First Archer got mad, thinking Reggie wanted Veronica, but then he realized it was the gesture he was jealous off. He wanted to be able to do the same with Betty, but no one had dared to really touch her since she came back out of fear of causing her to panic.

The bell on the door rang and loud footsteps sounded behind them. Archie looked up per automatic, already prepared to fight the black hood or any other treat, but the person at the door was wearing a leather jacket instead.

"Arch I need to talk to you-" Jughead was cut off at the sight off Betty as she turned her head in direction of the noise. He hadn't seen her since the night they broke up and the simple sight of her rendered him breathless. She was beautiful as always, her blond hair hung loose around her face, making her look older but also more endearing. She was wearing a bordeaux sweater with a v-neck, that was all he could see from his position but even that sent chills down his spine in a good way.

"Betty." He breathed as the world stood still. He was brought back to every moment they shared as he stared at her face, taking in every detail. Then someone cleared their throat and the spell was broken.

"What are you doing here, Serpent." Reggie spat, making Jughead aware of the strong football player by Betty's side. He was ready with a sharp answer when Betty cut him off.

"Reggie." She called softly, watching as both men was was seizing each other up and almost felt them trying to look bigger and more intimidating. She put a gentle hand on his arm to get his attention and he immediately turned to her and his glare softened. "I want to go home, will you take me?" he looked torn between kicking Serpent ass and complying to her wish. In the end the urge to keep her safe won and he nodded turning to the other two.

"You need a ride?" He asked but Archie quickly turned him down.

"No it is fine you just go." He didn't need to be told twice and pulled himself out of the booth with Betty in tow. She started walking towards the door past Jughead when Reggie stopped her.

"Here, it is cold outside." He told her and dropped his football-jacket over her shoulders. The gesture wasn't to be mistaken. It was a possessive move, marking Betty as his right in front of Jughead. When she didn't protest or shrug it off he smirked in victory and put his arm around her, steering her around Jughead. The two guys staring each other down in a silent battle until they were outside. Once the door closed Jughead sighed and dumped down on the now empty seat in the booth.

"Since when is Betty hanging with Reggie." He spat the other man's name with venom. Archie shrugged not knowing what to tell him. On one side Jug was his friend, and he had liked the two of them together. On the other side Jug had hurt Betty and she seemed happy around Reggie. He didn't like Reggie but the other man had shown a character lately Archie didn't know he was capeable of and he felt maybe Reggie deserved the benefit of doubt.

"You said you needed to talk?" He asked to stir the conversation away. Jughead tore his mind away from Betty, well one Betty problem, and nodded.

"Yeah, I asked around after what Kevin said about the Serpents being part of what happened to Betty. They haven't been released yet but they might be, the cops don't have any evidence aside from Betty's testimony through Kevin to keep them on. Jenny is gonna have them out in no time." Rage filled both of them.

"You mean they could walk free?! After what they did to her?!" Jug nodded solemnly.

"Yeah, but get this: They got a pretty air close alibi for not keeping Betty captured. The last week Fangs has been treated for a bullet wound and the other two got similar injuries. One of them got what the doctor described as: a piece of flesh being torn off by what appears to be a human bite." Veronica's face masked over with disgust.

"Someone took a bit out off him?" Jughead nodded seriously.

"Yeah I didn't get anything else but I was thinking we should visit the station and see if we can get something else." They didn't need to be told twice and in no time they were sneaking into the station. At least they tried to sneak in but they almost fell over Sheriff Keller on the way.

"Sheriff! We were just coming to see you." Archie said, the lie coming a little hard to him. The sheriff arched a brow in question.

"Really? And what can I do for you kids?" He asked and took place behind his desk. Archie felt more at ease now that he could stick a little more to the truth.

"We were wondering if you have found anything on Betty's case? We heard you were releasing the Serpents you arrested last week." He said, voice clearly indicating how upset that made him. Sheriff Keller looked surprised but quickly composed himself.

"Releasing those tugs? No way, not now that we finally got something to keep them for." Jug felt himself frown at the description of his fellow Serpents.

"But I thought they had an alibi?" Sheriff Keller shook his head and leaned back in his chair.

"No, only for not keeping her captive. We are very sure they were the ones to abduct her." Veronica stepped forward with furrowed brows and took over the questioning while the last of Jughead's illusion hat maybe what happened to Betty wasn't Serpent related shattered and died on the ground.

"How can you be sure?" Sheriff Keller looked a tiny bit squeezed then he sighed.

"Ahh what the hell, it'll be all over Riverdale in no time anyway. Betty Cooper made her official testimony four days ago." It sent a shock trough all of them. It wasn't even a few hours ago that Betty had refused to tell them anything. They all thought she would never speak of it after telling Kevin.

"She did?" Veronica asked, surprised her reserved friend had opened up. The sheriff made a sideways shrug and clapped his hands together in an autoritative way.

"Well a shortened version anyway. I'll doubt we'll hear anything else before the trial, and we will see a trial. Betty was abducted and held captured by different men with different motives. The three serpents we arrested for abducting her are definitely guilty of that. The doctors found her DNA in the bite wound and a fingernail in one guys arm. I'll tell you one thing for sure: Betty is a fighter." They were speechless. Different criminals? And did Betty take a bite out of a Serpent? They didn't pry any more and thanked the Sheriff before they left. Well at least Archie and Ronnie told Jughead they were going to leave.


	4. Guilt by the kilogram

After sending Jughead off on his bike, Veronica and Archie sneaked back into the station.

"Ronnie what is it?!" Archie asked as he trailed behind her but Veronica shushed him and kept and eye on the busy receptionist while pretending to be interested in everything else. The second he turned his back to the desk when an officer called for him, she was over there and quickly went over the table then snatched something from the desk before she turned and quickly ushered Archie out of there.

"What the hell?" he whisper-yelled to her as they went out into the parking lot and she smugly held up a USB-drive with the line 'Cooper-case' written on it.

"You stole evidence?!" he exclaimed and she avoided his gaze and hushed him again looking back to see if anyone heard him.

"No… I borrowed it." She declared and then that discussion was over.

Thirty minutes later they were sitting on the couch in Archie's garage, with his laptop open, ready to see what was on the drive. It turned out to be a video of a confession, taken in the integration room and featuring a Serpent who they hadn't meet yet. It started out very standard with him stating his name and age. Then it moved forward to the interrogation where a police officer sat in-front of him and asked the questions.

"Can you explain to me again, what happened the night of the crime?" The officer asked. The man in the picture glared with a defeated expression and then he sighed and began explaining.

"Okay so I already admitted to this right? But I swear we weren't going to.. I didn't know what Fangs had planned okay?" He asked angrily and came up a bit fearfull too. He seemed like someone who knew they had been dragged out in a dangerous place. The officer didn't answer so the Serpent continued. "We were just going to scare her a little, to send a message to FB's arrogant kid, you know?" Veronica furrowed her brows and leaned closer to Archie.

"Jughead?" She asked Archie who shrugged, too focused on the screen. The man on the screen continued.

"So, we followed her from school, grabbed her and took her to the south side, close enough to the trailer park to be offensive, far enough she wasn't going to be heard. When we got there.. Plan changed. Fangs wanted a piece of that ass and honestly? Can't blame him after the show she put on the week before." Archie clenched his fist in anger, already mentally planning out how to kill these men as slowly and painfully as possible.

"Anyway. Bitch put up one hell of a fight, took a piece out of LP and scratched me like a kitten. Things changed after that. LP lost his shit and beat the bitch half dead. Fangs insisted on getting his piece. So, we held her down for him, wasn't easy I'd tell ya, she isn't big but she is a kicker. Then FB started undoing his belt-" Archie cursed and Veronica instinctively reached out for him while tears were pressing in her eyes from the images running through her head already. They already knew what must have happened to her, they had read the doctors report: About the bruises in her upper thighs and the fact that she was found naked, but knowing it ad happened and hearing about it were entirely different things.

"Then what did he do after that?" The officer asked impatiently, clicking his pen and the man smirked a little sending a chill down their spine in anticipation of what he would say next. It wasn't what they had feared, but they didn't know if that made it any better.

"He did nothing after that, alright, nothing at all. He just stood completely still and then he fell flat on the ground, face first, impaled by the bullet." He declared with a sick smirk that gave Veronica the creeps.

"The bullet?" The officer asked curious, as if this was new information and the man nodded excitedly as if he was being aroused by telling about the entire ordeal.

"Yeah the bullet. Some guy, tall, a little wide with a black hood over his face, shot Fangs from behind with a pistol. He hit him in the shoulder, damn close to the heart. We didn't stick around to see what would happen, we just grabbed Fangs and ran off. We didn't think to take a second look before the doctor asked about it. -It must have been him who took the Cooper girl." He stated and the officer clicked his pen a few times.

"Can you descripe him better?" The Serpent frowned a little.

"No I just told you we didn't really look. He had a black hood covering his face, but I remember his eyes tho. They were the most poisonous shade of green I have ever seen." They didn't watch the rest, Archie just slammed the laptop close with a quick jerk.

"So that is what Sheriff Keller meant? They don't even have the guy who did it? That psychopath is still out there?!" Veronica shrieked in shock, anger in her eyes and a burning wish for justice, even if she had to make it happen herself.

"Worse." Archie said in a dark, angry yet defeated voice. It was the same man. The same man he had failed to defeat. And he had just taken down another of the people Archie held dear. This time it was worse tho. He hadn't just hurt Betty, he had destroyed her, damaged her very soul and identity, and he had done it right under Archie's nose as if to mock him for how defenseless he really was. "It is the black hood. The black hood took Betty." His Betty, his black hood, and his bloody fault.


	5. A ride for Miss Hyde

Right next door from where Archie and Veronica was exposed to their worst fears, Betty was quietly preparing for bed. She braided her hais in a freachbraid and pulled a pastelcollored tanktop over her head, straihtening it over her flannel pyjamapants. A slight smile crept on to her face as she remembered when Reggie dropped her off at her house earlier. They had sat there for a while, in silence, the awkwardness thick in the air. They did't speak of what had happened at Pop's and they didn't speak of anything else either. At last she reached for the doorhadle to let herself out but he stopped her at the last minute, grapping her other hand in his own.

"Betty I am sorry if I overstepped a line back there, I just-" she cut him off by bringing her lips to his in a quick, sweet kiss. It wasn't strong and passionate, but it was confident and meaningful and to Reggie it was more than he had ever hoped for with Betty Cooper. She didn't say anything when she pulled back. She just gave him a small smile and then reached for the handle and went inside were her mother had been quietly spying on them from the kitchen window. Her parents didn't say anything about the late hour she came home in, secretly they knew it was time that Betty went out with her friends again, but they couldn't help but feel unsettled when she wasn't home right after school. They sat down together and watched a movie, Alice an Hal simply enjoying having their daughter home again. For an hour and a half they were just a happy normal family.

A quiet knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts and back into her bathroom and she steeped out into her bedroom to look what had caused it. It was Alice who had come up to bid her goodnight. Alice smiled a little, seeing her daughter in her PJ's with her hair braided behind her as if nothing had ever happened. In her small fantasy world she could almost imagine that she could go in next door and find Polly in her own bed. Unpregnant and unharmed. She gave Betty quick hug before going to bed herself, smiling quietly to Hal when she started preparing and then snuggling up beside him. If their daughter could be okay after all that had happened to her, then maybe they could too. Betty closed the door after her mother and turned off the light in the room. She waited for twenty minutes, quietly sitting in the dark with her laptop, taking care of a few things she needed done anyway, then she quietly opened her closet and changed into a pair of dark jeans and a black t-shirt with a hooded sweatshirt and a leather jacket on top. She slipped on a fair of boots, the light military kind that had a good grip on the ground beneath and then opened the window carefully and climbed out on the roof. Then she quietly pulled it shut behind her so only a little was left open, enough so she could open in when she got back, and then elegantly as a cat, she slid down the drain to the ground and sneaked around to the other side of the house. A car was waiting for her on the other side of the street so her parents wouldn't notice. She climbed in without a word and let the driver speed off.

 ** _Okay, I know that was a short chapter, but the next one if sooo long it just felt more appropriate to stop this one here. Hope you can forgive me. XO_**


	6. Ugly lies horrible truth

Jughead had been busy for the last few days, trying to get more information about Betty and her disappearance. Too busy to really put any work into his activism for the south side and the Serpents. Tony had noticed but let him be, knowing he had a lot more to handle at the moment that just some self-identifying drama. So he was truly surprised and very angered when suddenly the mayor and the Sheriff came to shut down south side high, around him but there wasn't a whole lot that he could do about it now, it was too late for that. The time to save the school was weeks ago but Jughead hadn't been able to concentrate on anything other that Betty since he first learned she was missing and even less after she came back. And getting back to Riverdale High and thereby also Betty, wasn't something he minded too much. He slipped into his new, old, school and looked around for her but she wasn't in the hall. Veronica was, and Cheryl and their little banter about whatever or not the south siders were welcome. He ignored them, let Toni and the other Serpents take the fight even if it was only words, he had far more important things to care for. The bell rang and he had to give up on his quest to find the blonde beauty before class started. The south siders and the north siders weren't put in the same classes, porbably as not to spoil the north siders high average GPA, so he didn't get to see her before lunch. He scouted around for her but he hadnt needed too, had he jsut remembered what it was like to attend Riverdale High. She was with Veronica at their usual table with their usual lunch and their usual light joking in the air. He didn't even think before he moved, he just went over in her direction by instinct. It took a while before she noticed him standing at the end of the table, but finally she gazed at him with those deep blue eyes of hers and he got flashbacks to all the times those eyes had gazed longingly into his. Now they just looked at him with a wondering gaze, as were he a puzzle to solve.

"Jug, can we help you?" She asked shortly. It wasn't a mean tone, just curious as to what he would want to talk to her about.

"Betty, cut the crap please! You haven't talked to me since-" He cut himself off not wanting to say the words rape or kidnapping out loud. She arched an eyebrow.

"Since I was attacked? Beaten to a plumb and kidnapped? Held captured by a manic psychopath for a week? I am sorry, I didn't realize it was something I was supposed to tell my ex-boyfriend about." He flinched at the use of the word ex-boyfriend, the fight behind the Wrym still haunting him.

"Betty-" he tried to explain but she cut him off shortly, having had enough of his half-assed commitment. He couldn't even come up with a proper apology.

"No you listen to me Jughead Jones and you listen close." She raised her voice and jumped slightly out of her seat and people around started staring, sensing a fight about to break out. "You broke up with me! We didn't speak for a week, then this, this tragedy happens and you want to talk! You want me to what – fall back in love with you? Well that is not going to happen Jug face it! This doesn't change anything. We were done and we still are so just… Just go okay? I don't want to see you and you didn't want to see me either so just leave me alone." She quieted down at the last part. Jughead wanted to apologize, to tell her how sorry he was but didn't get the chance. Before he could blink Reggie was up behind her and staring him down.

"Serpent." He sneered and put a protective hand on Betty's shoulder. "I think she told you to go." He snarked and Jughead looked at Betty as if expecting her to defend him but she just avoided his gaze. He sighed and then backed off, leaving the scene before it became a fight. He watched her closely tho, over the next few days and he felt himself gag at the way Reggie always hovered around her like a dog with his favorite bone. Betty wasn't anything like herself. She was this perfect, fake version of Betty. The Betty that maybe someone would have pictured in a novel from the fifties where the characters were as bland as the scene-play. In kneelenght skirts and collared shirts, her hair always done with curls or braids or her signature pony and her face always wearing a smile.

"Does it bother you?" Someone asked behind him and he looked back to find a fellow Serpent watching him and the couple he was observing. Betty was leaning against the lockers and Reggie had his arm placed over her head, looming over her in what he probably called flirting. His jacket hung around her shoulders, marking her as his. It made Jughead sick, and he wanted to punch Reggie's face. For being misogynist, he told himself, not for being attracted to Betty.

"What does?" Jughead asked obliviously. The other guy just smirked and it looked like a snake preparing for a meal.

"Nancy Drew changing her snakeskin for a pet dog?" he asked and Jughead just glared and ignored him. He wasn't going to go into petty fights with his own people. There were too many enemies in his sight already.

"Fine, deny it, but your little domestic kitty just fell for a bulldog. Don't mind it tho, Vipers and kittens don't play, the kitten always gets bitten." He said as he strolled past him and Jughead was a moment too long about glaring the couple down before the words got through to him. The kitten always gets bitten. Was it a message? Or a coincidence? He didn't know but he was a intended on finding out. He went to the bar that night. Trying to see if he could figure anything out.

So, there he was, at the bar, when he noticed two dark figures slipping into the back of the place without stopping to talk to anyone. It wasn't unusual in the Wrym but it always meant trouble. He watched closely and waited till they slipped out again and quietly exited. On their way out they were facing towards him and he could skimt their faces underneath the hoods that they kept up to not draw attention to themselves. Joaquin, Kevin's ex and … Betty. She was dressed in black and with her hood pulled up to hide her face but he was sure it was her. He looked back to see his father exit from the door they came out off. Whatever Betty was doing in there, his father knew off it. He might even have arranged it. And he saw Jug noticing. They went home in silence but as soon as they got inside the trailer FB confronted his son about what he had seen at the bar.

"Come on, say it – you know you want to." He dared and opened his arms in an invitation to a fight and Jug just glared at him.

"What was Betty doing there tonight?" He asked grumpy, not taking his fathers bait for a fight and Fb sighed.

"Asking for a favor." He just said and turned hes side to Jug as Jug's eyebrows flew up in surprise and disbelief.

"We are doing Betty favors now?" FB just rolled his eyes and went into the kitchen.

"What happened to her Jug, it was done by Serpents. We have all had our run-ins with the laws but this is different. This isn't something that just happens or that you get pulled into. This is cruelty Jug, evil and twisted and nothing else. So yes, we do her favors - all Serpents owe Betty after what happened to her. So far, all she has asked for is a few rides that Joaquin is more than happy to give her, so as long as that is all she asks for, I think we can handle it." Jug felt silly. He acted as if Betty was the devil, as if she was Jenny. He apologized, knowing his father was right on this one. The Serpents did owe Betty after what happened and whatever she could ask for it wasn't something they couldn't handle. So he let it be, while unknowingly forgetting the real issue: What was Betty even doing out of her house, in the serpents nest none the less, in the first place?

He was reminded of the issue, when Archie showed up at his door around midnight three days later.

"Arch what is it?" The redhead just shifted around a little restlessly, then looked at his friend determined.

"Come on, something is up." Jug didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed his jacket and followed Archie. The two took the truck and drove to a small bar on the north side where Archie parked in the shadows so they could see the door from the car.

"What are we looking at?" Jug asked when he didn't make a move to get out of the car.

"Just look." Archie answered and Jug did. A while later two women and a man left the bar. Jug immediately recognized Cheryl Blossom with her long red hair. The other he first assumed to be her mother, with a long red mane to match Cheryl's but then he saw she was far too young to be Penelopy Blossom. Looking more closely at the man he recognized him too as Joaquin. Then he put two and two together and the conclusion left him speechless and even more puzzled than before.

"What is Betty doing with Cheryl Blossom in a bar in the middle of the night?" he finally asked Archie when he found his voice again.

"I don't know man and with Joaquin? Betty has been sneaking out of her room for the last week or so, so I decided to follow her the last few days and see where she went. She goes to bars and meet up with weird people and Joaquin is always with her!" Jug got half the answer to Archie's question.

"Joaquin is doing her a favor, driving her around. The Serpents all think they owe her after what happened." Archie looked at him weirdly first then decided to give up a piece of new found information to Jug.

"They kind of do. I mean what happened happened because off…" he didn't say it aloud but it was their relationship he was referring to.

"What do you mean?" Archie tapped the wheel lightly.

"Well Ronnie kind of burrowed an interview with one of the arrested. He said… They picked her off the road because they wanted to make a point come across to you. They picked her because she was your girlfriend Jug." Jughead didn't know what to say. He had thought he was protecting Betty by breaking-up with her but maybe instead he simply left her unprotected. He pondered on that, feeling a burning sensation starting in his stomach and slowly creeping up in his troath as he fought it back while Archie drove after Joaquin's car. He dropped Cheryl off at Thorn Hill then speed off in direction of Greendale. Archie didn't follow them out of Riverdale. Shadowing them all the way to Greendale without getting caught was impossible anyway. So he stayed in Riverdale and decided to take care of something else instead. He drove them to Kevin's house and knocked harshly on the door. Kevin opened looking slightly flustered.

"Archie, Jughead what are you doing here?" He asked suspicious yet surprised.

"Can we come in?" Archie asked and Kevin complied. They went into the kitchen and Kevin looked at them expectantly.

"What can I help you with?" He asked when none of them said anything.

"We know Kevin. That it was the black hood who took Betty. It is time you tell us the rest." Archie said and Jughead intimidatingly cursed, being revealed to the fact for the first time.

"What? The black hood-" Archie held up a hand to quiet him and looked at Kevin who suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

"I can't tell you what you want to know. I won't tell you and I can't." He said as Archie continued to stare him down.

"You don't need to. We found the doctor's report. He raped her didn't he? The black hood shot Fangs, took Betty, kept her captured and raped her." Kevin's eyes widened in shock while Jughead looked equally parts horrified and destroyed at Archies revelation. Betty, his Betty, god what had he let happen to her?

"Is that what you think?" Kevin asked and took the silence as a confirmation.

"The black hood didn't rape Betty," he said and the boys only had a brief moment of relief when he added. "What he did was far worse than that." The two men didn't say anything, they just waited for him to explain but he never did. Eventually he sighed.

"If you want answers, then look at the police work, and the house she escaped from. Everything is in there." He told them and then showed them out. Archie thanked him before leaving.

"What now?" Jughead asked as they sat back in the car. Archie glanced at him.

"It is late. We go home. Tomorrow I'll get Veronica to come with us after school and then we'll all go look at that cabin. Then the police station." Jughead nodded, his head was spinning with questions but his body felt tired. Archie dropped him off at the trailerpark and he planned on going straight to bed but didn't have such luck.

"What are you doing out boy?" His father demanded once he stepped foot in the trailer. FB himself looked like he just got home himself from something Jug probably didn't want to know what was.

"Archie needed to show me something." He said.

"Hell of an hour for a Joytrip." Jughead ignored him then something entered his mind.

"Dad… Archie mentioned that during the interrogation, one of the men who attacked Betty.. He indicated that they did it because she was my girlfriend. Do you think that is true?" FB just looked at him for a while then sighed and shrugged.

"You are my son Jug, I am leader of the Serpents. That is motive enough for some people. You have to make it clear to them that Betty isn't to be messed with, I had to do the same with your mother. She is your girlfriend and that means if they mess with her they mess with you. If Fangs wasn't already rooting in jail I'd suggest you'd go kick his ass. Hell I'd demand it!" Jug sighed and rubbed his face.

"Betty isn't my girlfriend anymore dad. I ruined that, just like I ruin everything else." Silently he added that he might have ruined Betty too. His father stared at him blankly a few minutes then he looked around in a way that said he was close to giving up on Jug altogether.

"You don't let go of a girl like that Jug, you just don't." but it didn't matter because Jug already had. And he didn't need his dad or anyone else telling him how stupid that had been, he could see that for himself.


	7. The dark angel rises

The next day Jug had to drag his ass out of bed after getting less than minimum sleep. He had tossed and turned all night, thinking about what Betty was possibly doing. At school he meet up with Archie in the hall, who looked equally as smashed as himself.

"You look like you haven't slept mate." He told him flatly and Archie blinked slowly as if only first registering it himself.

"Almost haven't. I waited up when I got home and tried to see at what time Betty got home but I fell asleep before she did. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Betty didn't show up for school today." He said seriously as if the option of Betty not showing up for school was a real option.

"She is already here why?" Veronica asked, showing up suddenly. Archie starred at her in disbelief.

"What? But it isn't even time for class yet!" Veronica looked at him weirdly and chuckled.

"It never is. Betty always gets here early. Reggie picks her up and then they spend some time in the press-room together before classes. Why?" She demanded again but gave up with a sigh as the boys pushed past her and hurried to the press-room. Sure enough there was Reggie leaning over the desk and flirting with Betty who looked poshed as ever while writing the last of her article for the school paper. There wasn't any signs of tiredness showing, no dark cirkels or bloodshot eyes. She looked like someone who got their 8 hours, better even.

"No way." Jug whispered and Veronica looked at them weirdly again, not getting the big deal.

"Betty wasn't home all night last night." Archie explained to her sensing her confusion. He added "As a matter of fact she hasn't been home at night all week maybe even longer than that: She should be exhausted." Veronica shrugged like it wasn't a bit deal at all.

"So, she probably slept at Reggie's. They are a couple you know, give her a break." The boys just gave her a ridiculous look for a reason she was oblivious to. "What?"

"She wasn't sleeping." Was all Archie said then the bell rang and they had to give up their small banter.

Jug went home right after school that day, to catch a late lunch before meeting up with Archie and Veronica, but was more than a little surprised to find Betty in the trailer. What was she doing there? Was she there for him? How had she even managed to get there before he did. He was so surprised and consumed by questions that it took him a moment to realize she wasn't alone, his father was there too. They looked up surprised when he entered, then Betty pushed herself off the kitchen counter where she had been sitting.

"Thank you FB, I appreciate it." She said as she tried to push past Jughead who stood stunned in the door opening.

"Take care Betty." FB called after her as she disappeared out the door. A car that Jughead didn't recognize was waiting for her, parked outside. She got in the passengerseat and the driver instantly speed off in direction of the north side, quickly leaving the place of the crime, Jughead thought bitterly.

"What was she doing here?" He asked once he knew she was gone. FB shrugged and started pulling something from the fridge.

"She asked me to ask around for some intell on a guy who owns a Chinese mastiff." Jughead raised a brow.

"Still doing her favors?" His father stared at him blankly.

"This was hardly a favor. Even if it was, there is no reason not to." Jughead didn't want to discuss it and grabbed his helmet forgetting about lunch. He used the ride to clear his head. He knew he was acting foolish. It was Betty Cooper for fucks sake. Mostly likely she was doing research for the school paper. Yet Jug couldn't shake the feeling that Betty was up to something, something bad. He didn't know what that had to do with his father but after Penny, he really didn't like doing people favors. Yet he knew Betty, and she would never get engaged in anything dangerous. Then realization his him like a stone in the face. The Betty he knew wasn't the Betty walking around the school halls and it wasn't the Betty sneaking around town at night either.

He meet up with Archie and Veronica at the edge of the forest. Veronica ahd changed into a pair of jeans, he didnt even know she owned a pair, and a t-shirt with a bomber jcaket on top. Arche was sporting his usual attire, falshing his bulldog jacket.

"Are we sure about this?" Veronica asked and Archie nodded handling them each a large flashlight.

"Kevin was very clear this is the only way we are going to get answers." He said end the three of them wearily took off into the forest. They found the cabin relatively easily and climbed under the police tape marking the place as a crime scene.

"Where do we start?" Jug asked once they were on the doorstep and Archie shrugged.

"Wherever feels natural." He said and tried the door: It was unlocked. The house smelled of wood and old dust alongside some mole. It was sparingly furnished and everything looked old and rusty. Archie turned on his flashlight and examined the hall. He noted with some bitterness that there was dark plamages on the rug, could be blood but he couldn't be sure. He went in further and looked around. There was a living room, a kitchen at the end of the hall and two closed doors. Then there was a staircase down to a basement but all in all it was a small place. Archie looked in the kitchen first. There was nothing there to indicate anyone was living there. A few biscuits in a closet and a can of tomatoes. It was the old stove that caught his eye. There was a long chain from it, with a delicate metal ring at the end that looked like it was meant to be locked. It sent another round of chills trough him.

"You guys don't think he…" Veronica nodded in disgust.

"Chained her to the stove, yes.. Come on lets see what else is here." Jughead didn't need to be told twice and quickly went down the basement trying not to think too much of what had happened to Betty in that kitchen. He regretted immediately. The basement looked like something from a horror movie. There was dried blood everywhere, scrathmarks on the walls, persumingly Betty's and it seemed someone had craved messages in it too. Two metal shackles on the wall told a scary tale of Betty's fate here. Around the room laid different tools, pipes and a single chair stood out as the only furniture. Jug could only imagine how it had been used. Felling his guts role at the simple sight he quickly went upstairs while the other two investigated the basement further. He checked the two remaining rooms. One was furnished simply with a double bed and a cabinet. There weren't any pictures or other articles to mark it as a personal space. He figured this must have been where the hood had slept. The other room made dreed fill his veins yet again. One wall was filled with pictures of Betty, an alter or a crime wall. Clearly this person had been following her and taken pictures without her knowing. There were even pictures of her and Jug together but his face was blacked out on all of them. He sank as he looked at the evidence of their happy times together, both in regret for having ruined it but also in dreed, knowing the hood had been there for every each one of those moments. A picture caught his eye. It was taken at the Wyrm, that night when everything went to hell, the night of the snake dance. it featured Betty in her underwear and had too messages written on it. One was scratched out but he could still make out the words: _fallen from grace._ Then right underneath it stood: _Dark angel arises_. He felt the unnerving feeling fill him again. Everything about that night was getting more and more twisted as it became clear that Betty hadn't been a random victim. Not to the serpents and not to the hood.

Another wall was filled with other pictures: Framed and lined up in order. There was one of Fred, one of Moose and Midge, one of Polly, one of Jason, one of Mrs. Gerald and one of The Sugarman. All of them had titles like 'sinner' 'adulteress' or 'predator' underneath. What scared Jug the most through was that in the middle of the room was an alter, with two candles and a cross and two pillows in front. He could only imagine what kind of religious nightmare agenda the hood had pulled Betty through. Feed up with it all he went outside and waited for the other two. They quickly followed once they too had seen the horror rooms, and they went to the station to find out more.

The station was more or less empty at this time of the day. It wasn't hard for them to sneak past the busy officers into the layer where they knew the police kept all the evidence. Veronica was quick to figure out the filing system and found the right shelf.

"There is a few boxes missing, but I think they are done with these." She said as she pulled out a few archive boxes and handed the to Archie who put the on a table nearby.

She started opening one and went through the evidence. The boys copied her with the other boxes, deciding to be effient as they didnt knwo how much time they had to do this.

"Got anything?" Veronica asked while skipping trough some pictures from the crime scene. They showed the same thing they had seen, only there were a few things that had apparently been confiscated.

"Yeah." Jughead said while still staring helplessly at the box content. He had opened the box then immediately frozen. "What the hell is this?" Veronica frowned looking at the white fabric and then reached over to pull it out of the box and held it up in-front of the boys.

"It is a weeding dress." She said in surprise that matched Archie's and Jughead's. The dress was long and simple and looked like something that might have belonged to someones grandmother.

"What would he need a weeding dress for?" Archie asked in wonder.

"I'll tell ya." A voice boomed behind them. "If you snooping kids tell me what you are doing down here?" Sherif Keller asked looking sternly at the three teenagers. They stood there in awkward silence like children being scolded. When netiher of them said anything he sighed and made a move for them to follow him. He took them to his office and they quietly sat down in the chairs in-front of his desk, Jughead chose to stand, and waited for him to start.

"So, I figure you have already been at the crime scene?" He asked sternly and they nodded quietly. "And then you came here to look trough evidence?" They nodded again and this time Jug spoke up, hoping the Sheriff could provide some answers to all his questions.

"He was trying to marry her wasn't he? That is what the alter and the dress was for? He wanted to marry Betty, but why?" He demanded and the other two looked shocked not having made the same conclusion yet, but the sheriff just nodded.

"We found a weeding attest too, but without signatures. From what we have gather with the evidence and Betty's spareful testimony, he tried torturing and manipulating her into signing but she escaped before he got that far." Jug swallowed a big lump that was starting to overtake his voice.

"Why? And why her?" he asked again the the Sherif shrugged not knowing how to answer. When he took the job as sheriff in Riverdale he always figured it'd be lots of petty crime and paperwork. Never had he imagined standing in front of a kidnapping and capture case, featuring the town's girl next door icon. Truth was the more the case unfolded, the more sheriff Keller realized he was just not cut out for the job.

"The black hood is all about the sinners of Riverdale. We know from earlier cases that he thinks of Betty as something right and pure, the only thing right and pure in Riverdale. So it makes sense that he would want her as his own, but can't have her until she has agreed to marry him or else they would be living in sin." Archie made a strangled noise and Veronica had to push trough her disgust and nausea to ask the next question.

"Please tell us you are going to catch this guy." She begged and the Sherif nodded and leaned back looking rather satisfied.

"We are. I don't think he can hide from us much longer." Archie frowned.

"With all due respect sir: You have been searching for the hood for a long time without results. What makes you think this time will be different?" Sherif Keller leaned forward again and opened his drawer with one hand while explaining.

"Because this time we have something we didn't before. We have a good signalement, a list of specific identificationing traits and then we have this." He found what he was looking for in the drawer and pulled out a evidence bag with two little white pieces in it.


	8. Little important peices

"What is that?" Archie asked confused and leaned closer to look at the pieces as Sherif Keller laid it on the table so they could see it better.

"When Betty was in the hospital, we kept her there for a few days, both for recovery but also because we needed something she was digesting. That." He said pointing at the bag. Suddenly realization dawned upon Veronica and she quickly jumped back with a horrified expression.

"Please tell me that isn't what I think it is!" She exclaimed making the boys look at her curious. The sheriff sensed she knew exactly what it was and he nodded and explained, confirming her fear.

"Sometime during her time in capture, the black hood apparently traced her lips with a finger and Betty bit him. She bit his finger off, and swallowed it. Those bonepieces are all that came out but it is enough to give us a DNA profile and, well, now we know we are looking for a middle aged man who is missing a finger." Jug felt sick while Archie looked impressed. Truth be told, in all of this he had seen Betty as a helpless victim who were defenseless against the acts of these predators. Now he felt slightly proud of the petite blonds ability to act in a bad situation. He decided then that if he ever faced a similar situation then he would want Betty by his side.

"She bit it off and swallowed it?" He asked leaning further forward to examine the pieces. The Sherif nodded looking equally impressed.

"She sure did, now you know what I mean when I say Betty Cooper is a fighter." Archie nodded raising an eyebrow in surprise and respect. They sat in silence for a moment while taking in the information then Veronica shook her head.

"Just so I know I have this right: Betty, who was abducted by three Serpents who took her to the south side to rape her, fought tooth and nail and even bit a piece of flesh out of one of them. Then the black hood shows up, shoots Fags and scares of the rest, then takes Betty and keeps her captured in a cabin in the woods where he tortures her so he can get her to marry him. She bites off his finger and escapes through the woods but passes out and is found by Midge and Moose who then takes her to the hospital where she stays for three days so she can shit out the bones of the finger she bit off?" She summed up and the Sherif shrugged a little.

"She bit the finger off sometime during her capture, but he didn't feed her so it took a while to get out. As for escaping, she explained he had beat her up particularly hard that day and she had pretended to pass out so he hadn't bothered chaining her back up, probably thinking she would be out for a few hours. As soon she heard him leave she escaped out the back but due to her condition she didn't get far. She pulled herself over the fallen tree then twisted her ankle and on top off all her other injuries, she passed out from the pain. Probably he found out she was gone and thought she had gotten further so he didn't bother cheeking the backyard. So when Midge came by a few hours later she was still there." He explained and the three teens just sat there looking stunned. Eventually the sheriff sighed.

"Look, kids, we are doing everything we possibly can to find this man and bring him to justice. I need you to stay out of the way and not interfere with our work." He instructed seriously and they nodded then he showed them out.

Archie drove them to Pop's, feeling they needed to have a discussion about the new in-tell.

"I guess we know what happened to Betty then." He lead the conversation off and Veronica visbly shuddered and hugged herself.

"I kinda feel like I was better off before. My god, poor Betty. Not knowing what she had been trough was hard but knowing and knowing it was this.." she trailed off, not able to put words on her feelings.

"It is like our imagination was a sugarcoated version meant for kid's tv." Jughead finished for her and she just nodded.

"We still don't know what is up with her now tho." Archie said and Veronica sighed deeply.

"She drank a coffee too much, Archiekins chill with the suspicion would you?" She snapped but Archie wasn't going to be scolded.

"It isn't just today Ronnie. She has been sneaking out every night for over a week, and I am starting to think she doesn't return before sunrise. So what is she doing?" Veronica couldn't answer that but Jughead had an idea he decided to share with them.

"I think I've got a hunch. Betty has been driving around with Joaquin, I don't know where but it has kept Joaquin busy enough that he has barely been around at the Wyrm. Every time I ask my dad about it he says we owe her and to stop asking questions. Last night Archie and I followed her and she went to a bar with Cheryl Blossom, wearing a redheaded wig - I swear I almost thought they were sisters!" Veronica frowned deeply.

"That is weird. Mostly because she seems so poshed all the time." She thought for a moment then an idea formed in her mind.

"Know what? I'll ask her to join me for a sleepover. Then I can keep an eye on her and maybe figure out what is up?" The boys was quiet for a moment, thinking about how perfect the plan really was.

"What if she sneaks out again?" Veronica shot Jughead a ridiculous stare.

"I live in a hotel Jug, I'll just tell André to keep an eye on the door and make sure she doesn't disappear." He could hardly argue with that. They all nodded, agreeing on the plan as it wasn't half bad. They split up afterwards, Archie took Veronica home and Jughead returned to the trailerpark. He had leaned more tonight than he wanted to know but he knew there was so much he still didn't have a clue off.


	9. New town new secrets

It was quiet in the trailerpark when Jug parked his bike and his father wasn't home so he could slip in without any trouble. He laid awake on the couch however, thinking about how Betty might be running around town right now doing god knows what. He decided not to sleep after all. Instead he drove around town, trying to see if he could catch sight of her. Eventually he ended up at the Wyrm where Tony was about to pour him a drink when he asked her:

"Do you know where Joaquin is tonight?" She hesitated and gave him a weird look almost as if she was trying to anticipate his reaction.

"In Greendale. He gave Betty a ride, mumbling something about how it was going to be another late night." Jughead frowned and then took a quick decision. He took his jacket and headed outside to his bike, determined to go to Greendale and find Betty. It was a long lonely ride to Greendale but once he got there it wasn't hard to find Joaquin's car. It was parked outside the only club in Greendale. Jug tried to go in but the bouncer stopped him and asked for an ID. When Jughead couldn't provide one he was asked to leave so he had to settle for waiting outside until Betty and Joaquin came out. It didn't take long. Not even an hour later Joaquin came out with a figure that must have been Betty although it didn't look like her. She had heels on that looked long and sharp enough to be used as a weapon, a short black dress that showed way too much skin and a leather jacket on top, not a Serpent one tho. She was also wearing the red wig from the other night. Jughead frowned, even more when two other figures came out behind them. Jug recognized them as Ghoulies. He was about to get ready to jump in to defend her when he saw them stop at the car. Joaquin seemed to stay back a little reserved while Betty handled the confrontation. They exchanged a few words then the two men shuffled off to their own bikes and Betty and Joaquin got in the car and drove back to Riverdale.

They drove back to the White Wyrm and Betty stayed in the car while Joaquin went inside. He considered going over to talk to her but decided against it when she pulled out her phone and started making calls. It seemed she had serveral conversations before Joaquin came back out and climbed in to the drivers seat. Jug quickly got back on his bike and followed them. They made another stop at Thornhill where Cheryl came out to meet them and she and Betty exchanged a few words. Betty had pulled her wig off on the ride to Riverdale and her blond hair seemed to almost glow in the french-braid she had made. Betty handed Cheryl an envelope and then she and Joaquin drove off again back to Betty's house where she said goodbye to Joaquin. Jug looked at the clock on his phone: it was three am. In less than four hours she would have to get up for school. He expected her to sneak into her room and go to bed but it seemed Betty had other ideas.

He followed her into the backyard then watched as she climbed over the fence surrounding their garden. He followed quietly, trying to stay out of sight while keeping an eye out for other threats. Betty didn't seem worried about anyone jumping her and he quickly found out why. A male figure came out of the shadows behind a tree and greeted her. The two of them sneaked their way through the dark to a garage. They seemed to know their way around and went inside without much trouble. He followed suit and found the garage empty. Where had they gone? There was only one other door but it was locked. He could see a light was on inside tho and figured that was where they must have went. He considered waiting for them out front but decided against it. It was already late and he too had school the next day.

So instead he found his way back to the front of her house where he had parked his bike and sent a quick text to Archie about the situation, asking him if he was up to see when she got home. He didn't wait for a reply and instead he went home, trying to get a bit of sleep and pretend that he had been home all night.


	10. Shadow of the girl he knew

Archie had started going running in the morning lately, ever since Mr. Lodge had publicly humiliated him he had decided to work harder and be stronger in order to earn the older man's respect. That is why he saw Jughead's text only two hours after it was sent and looked out to see if she was back in her room. He couldn't see anything so he changed and went downstairs, then instead of going out the front door he decided to exit through the garage. It proved to be a wise decision as he randomly caught Betty sneaking back into her room. The wig was gone, so it was just Betty in a skimpy black dress and unreal high-heels, sneaking through her backyard at the light of day. She looked tired for the first time in weeks and Archie felt relieved to know at least she was still human. He couldn't wrap his head around the attire tho, it wasn't like Betty to go clubbing. He was brought out of his thoughts by a figure moving in the distance behind Betty. While Jughead hadn't been able to identify the man that had meet up with Betty in the back, Archie instantly recognized Doyle, yet found it that much weirder that he was escorting Betty back to her house. He shrugged it off, finished his run in record time then after showering and having a quick breakfest, he finally beat Reggie to her house.

"Hey Reggie!" he called and came up to the drivers side. "Man I was wondering, could you drive to school instead? I want to talk to Betty about something and I wanted to use the walk to school to do it." Reggie looked annoyed and irritated but he tapped his fingers on the wheel a few times before sighing deeply.

"Okay sure, but you better take good care of my girl Archie! Anything happens to her, I am coming after you." Archie swore he'd protect her so Reggie drove off a little hesitant. Betty came out soon after and blinked in surprise to find Archie standing where Reggie usually parked. She gave him a smile anyway.

"Archie what are you- Where is Reggie?" she asked and he shrugged.

"I wanted to walk you to school. You don't mind right?" she arched a brow but shook her head.

"No of course not, we'd have to get going tho." She said and pulled the strap on her bag up a little before she fell in beside him on their walk to school.

"So, what do I owe the pleasure?" She asked jokingly and pulled back a little to look at him. Archie shrugged.

"We just haven't really had the chance to talk recently." He explained and Betty pursed her glossed lips.

"I guess not… How are you?" He laughed a little, it was so typical of her to ask when really he wanted to know about her.

"I am fine, thanks. What about you, you look great!" he commented and Betty laughed and blushed a little.

"Thank you. I.. I guess I am okay? I mean there is a lot going on right now but I think I am managing." She shrugged but Archie picked up on the distressed note in her voice.

"What is bothering you?" he asked seriously as is he was ready to slay whatever monster stood in the way of her. She shrugged.

"It is not really bothering me.. Well it is." She sighed then babbled it all out at once like usually. "It is just that the trial is coming up and I don't know… There is a lot of decisions to make, and I want to make everyone happy but at the same time.. This is really about me you know? Like it is probably the thing that is more about me than anything else has ever been and that kind of scares me, because now I have to do what I find right and not what is better for someone else." She sighed and gave him an awkward smile.

"It is messed up I know." She said but Archie just shook his head.

"No I get it. Maybe I can help?" he offered and she considered it then nodded slightly to herself as she pondered on the right way to explain her dilemma.

"Well I don't know how much you have heard but Sheriff Keller arrested three Serpent who were.. involved in what happened. Their lawyer want's a settlement but my lawyer says we'll definitely win the case if it goes to trial. I don't know through, trials get messy and I have got so much other stuff on my plate. The easy thing to do would be taking the settlement but then again I don't want to let them get away with it either." Archie was stunned. It was the first time he had heard Betty actually address what had happened and the case at all. Truth was he didn't know much about that stuff but he would try to help her anyway.

"What is the settlement?" he asked and she looked down.

"Well we don't know before agreeing to sit together but bassed on the evedince for trial.. My laywer says we can put them away for little over a year through a seetlement." He frowned.

"A year? After what they did?" she nodded and fidgeted with the hem of her coat.

"The thing is Arch, we don't really have enough eveidence. At least I don't think we do. Luckily they were so busy trying to get out of the kidnapping charges that they admitted to a whole lot of other things but still at most they can go on trial for violence and attempted rape. My laywer says that we can go for kidnapping too and that can give up to fifteen years, but I don't know if I want them to serve that long!" Archie looked at her in wonder.

"Why not? Betty what they did-" he stopped when she visbly shuddered.

"I know what they did Arch, more importantly what they would have done but.. I just, I.." She sighed for a moment trying to pick the right words to describe her feelings.

"Fangs got shot. He totally deserved that but I also feel like maybe that was already part of his punishment? I don't want to ruin his life." She admitted and Archie tried his hardest to understand why she wouldn't want that.

"Like he ruined yours?" he asked her in disbelief and she laughed a small iroic laugh without much glee.

"But that is the thing. I am still here aren't I?" she asked and he didn't know what to say. She was, but she wasn't the Betty he knew. Finally he figured out what to say.

"What DO you want, Betty? What punishment would you see fit?" She pursed her lips in thought for a moment.

"I want them to admit to what they did. I want them to know the pain. I want them to feel what I felt. Not just what they did but what they caused on me too. I want that, for them to really know what they did." She sighed again before she came with a confession Archie didn't predict. "I want them out of prison because I know that the Serpents will give them a better punishment than the lawsystem." She bluttered and he looked at her a little shocked but then he nodded and grabbed her hand, causing her to stop. They had almost reached the school now but he wanted to tell her this last thing in private.

"Betty, whatever happens we are here for you. All of us. And if those dickheads get any less than what they deserve then I'll personally see to it that they will get what was coming for them. I am here for you Betty but you have to let me." He told her, looking deep in her eyes. She swallowed deeply but nodded, tears forming in her eyes. Then she tiptoed and placed a small kiss on his cheek. It was innocent, just a sign of graditude and nothing more.

"Thank you Archie." She whispered then pulled away from him and walked into then school. Archie stood still and felt his cheek. He hadn't expected that but it felt good. Like maybe she had actually heard what he had said.


	11. Snakes and dogs running around

Veronica discreetly pulled Betty aside by lacing her arm through her's and pulling her closer to her side before their cheer practice and decided to put her plan into action.

"Hey B I was wondering: How would you feel about a sleepover on Friday? My parents aren't home all weekend and I could really use some girl-time." She begged and Betty sent her a bright smile that Veronica noted bitterly she hadn't seen in several weeks.

"Sounds great V, but I promised Reggie we'd go to the movies on Friday. Maybe Saturday?" She asked hopefully and Veronica accepted with an enthusiastic nod and started planning their night in detail before they had to break apart for practice.

Betty felt the way her body reacted well to the physical exercise. It felt relieving in a way that made her tense mulches relax. She stayed after the others left, and put her own music on the sound-system. Swaying her hips, Betty did a choreography she had never done before and she felt absolutely great about it. It was daring, sexy yet powerful. She practiced it, again and again for hours until at last it felt perfect. She made a mental note to show it to the other Vixens before she headed out, grabbing her gym-bag and walked out to the football field where they boys were rounding up practice. Reggie smiled at her and waved before he went to shower, indicating he would be out in a bit. She tapped her foot a little impatient and checked her phone, completely unaware of the Serpents that were slowly creeping onto the beaches now that the football players had left the territory. They spotter her quickly tho and stopped dead in their tracks.

Obviously they all knew who Betty was. They had seen her around as Jug's girlfriend and they had definitely seen her around after the incident. However, many of them didn't know what to think of her. On one side she had been hurt badly and they all felt partly responsible seeing as it was Serpents who had done that. One the other side she had thrown three of their own in jail and a serpent never turned on their own. So most off all, the remaining Serpents just wanted to steer clear of Betty Cooper. Not dealing with her at all was a lot easier than picking sides. Seeing Betty Cooper now however, in her cheerleader uniform with her curly blond ponytail and her boyfriend's football-jacket hanging lazily around her shoulders were a lot more real than they could handle. When Betty came around the Wyrm she was always dressed the part. In dark clothes, usually a lot of leather and with a haunted yet firm expression on her face, that made it easier for them to respect her and what she had gone through. Now that she looked like the American dream, she was resembling everything they resented about the north-side and it made it that much harder to choose between her as the hurt victim and their own who were locked away. Just as they were about to make their presence known to her, Reggie and Archie came out of the locker-room to pick her up. Reggie tensed when he saw the Serpents and in an instant he was standing in front of Betty as if to shield her from their gaze. He knew they were outnumbered, he wasn't stupid, but it didn't stop him from glaring daggers their way. Reggie hated the south-side, he had been taught too his entire life. Seeing how they hurt Betty only made his hatred grow. Having them here, at his school, on his football field, close to his girlfriend, was more then he could handle.

"Betty, lets go." He growled and took her by a firm grip on the elbow. Betty looked up confused to his sudden roughness then she too saw the gang members hanging around and the color temporarily drained from her face. Then she disappeared into Reggie's side as if she could be invisible to the gang-members that way and let him lead her out with his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. Archie followed after them while keeping an eye on the Serpents to make sure no one followed. The three of them got into Reggie's car together and Reggie dropped Archie off at his front door before he speed off fast past Betty's house without stopping. Archie stared after them with a light frown, not liking the way Reggie's temper seemed to rear its head. He knew the other boy had anger issues it was what made him such a damn good player on the field but it also made for an unstable character. Reggie had been on his best behavior these past weeks because of Betty but now he wasn't so sure about the other boy's intentions. He kept and eye on her room but she didn't return home. He sent her a text, asking her to meet him in the morning so he could walk her to school. When she didn't answer he sighed and turned off his bed-light, hoping she would have answered by the next day.

He woke up before the sun was up. At first he thought it was the purring rain that had woken him up but then he heard the sound of a door banging against the frame downstairs. Instantly he was on his feet, grabbing a baseball-bat and mentally prepared for a confrontation with the black hood. He followed the sound into the garage and warily turned on the light when he entered, deciding it was better to be able to see his attacker. He quickly dropped the bat when he saw it wasn't the black hood in his garage. It was Betty. She was completely soaked from the rain and her eyes were puffy and red from crying.

"Betty! What on earth are you doing here?" he asked her and hurried to her, grapping a blanket to wrap around her small wet frame.

"I am sorry I didn't mean to wake you!" She apologized but Archie just shook his head and put an arm around her.

"What happened Betty? Why are you crying? Did Reggie-" Archie already felt his anger raise at the thought of Reggie hurting Betty but she shook her head and pulled her legs up beneath her.

"No no, Reggie is a sweatheart…" She trailed off but she didn't tell what had caused her to find her way into his garage in the middle of the night. Eventually she sighed.

"Can I sleep on this couch? I can't go home, my mom… She'll grow another leg. Please Arch?" she begged and he couldn't deny her when she did that so he nodded and wrapped the blanket tighter around her.

"Of course Betty, anything. Won't you feel safer inside the house tho?" he asked her but she just shook her head.

"No, no one knows I am out here anyway, it is fine." She assured him and he reluctantly went back to bed after making sure the door was locked and blocked. But he tossed and turned for a half hour and eventually went back downstairs to check on her. He stopped when he heard voices, or perhaps it was just one voice.

"Thank you for tonight – Yeah it got really close – We need to figure out a better way – I don't know how they found us!" She exclaimed and it occurred to him then that she must be speaking to someone on the phone. He let her have her privacy for now, but swore to himself he was going to figure out what she was hiding.


	12. To sleep or not to sleep

That morning Betty was gone long before Archie went for his run. The blanket that was nicely folded on the couch was the only thing that proved she had actually been there. He expected Reggie to pick her up for school as usual so he was more than surprised when instead Cheryl pulled up in a red mustang. Betty got in quickly but not before Archie caught a glimpse of her attire. It was different. Different from the retro-skirt she usually went in, different from her old pastel jeans and different from the short dresses she seemed to be sporting at night. She was dressed in tight jean skirt and a white top that was definitely in violation of the dress-code. The black sweater around her shoulders must have been a repercussion of that. Cheryl speed off before he could ponder anymore over the outfit, their hair waving in the wind behind them.

He spotted her in the hall before class, for once she wasn't with Reggie in the press-room. She was with Kevin in the hall, laughing and joking like the old Betty he remembered, except a little more bold.

"Dude." Jughead said coming up behind him. "I fucked up." He confessed and then threw a quick look in Betty's direction and visibly relaxed slumping back against the lockers.

"What happened?" Archie asked, eager to get an explanation to Betty's appearance in his garage. Jug shook himself out of whatever thought stream he had been in and sighed loudly.

"A lot of things happened last night. Bad things. I confronted Joaquin and I think it might have been a stupid thing to do. Not only did he give me nothing on Betty but he also cursed at me and said I may just have caused her death. I thought maybe he meant Betty so I went by her house to check on her but she wasn't there, I even checked through her bedroom window. I asked at the Wyrm but no one seemed to know. So I went past Thornhill to confront Cheryl but she wasn't there either. Penelophy said Cheryl has been digging up her father's old secrets, whatever that means." He whispered darkly and Archie felt a cold feeling run through him.

"Betty was at my place last night." He said to Jug who looked at him both shocked and a bit betrayed. Archie quickly shook his head to ease his friend.

"No not like that. I woke up by a noise from the garage and found her there soaking wet. She asked if she could sleep there but she was gone before I got up." He explained and Jughead's frown deepened. He was about to go over and talk to Betty when the bell rang and interrupted his mission.

The day went by but they didn't get the chance to talk to her. She seemed out of reach all the time, either talking with Cheryl or Kevin or just plain missing. Eventually she finally stepped out of the girls room and into the hall alone. Archie was about to go over to talk to her about what happened that night when Reggie beat him to it.

"Betty!" He called and caught up to her. She smiled at him and adjusted her bag.

"Hi Reg." she purred and Reggie stopped and looked confused then he shook his head and started apologizing to her.

"Look Betty I am so sorry about-" She held up a hand to cut him off with a mild laugh.

"Reggie, it is okay, really. I am not mad." She said and he looked confused again then relief washed over his face.

"You are not?" She laughed and shook her head.

"No I am not. I get it, there is no reason to apologize anyway, you didn't do anything wrong." He shook his head smiling at her.

"Betty Cooper you are something else." She blushed lightly but flipped her hair.

"I know." She said self-confident and he laughed then he framed her face with both hands and leaned down to capture her lips with his, ignoring the wolf-whistles and catcalls they attracted. When they broke apart some even started clapping and Betty blushed deeper but laughed and did a little queen wave and a bow. Then she grabbed Reggie's hand and they disappeared out the door to the green area.

With another opportunity passed the boys had put talking to Betty on hold. Since their passionate declaration of love in the hall, Reggie had been pretty much glued to Betty's side. Betty seemed changed too. Not only was she not riding with Reggie home everyday but sometimes riding Cheryl's Mustang and going to Thornhill instead, but also she had lost some of the 50'ties polish. She was still the American dream to look at, but something about her spoke a little more edge now. So they didn't get anywhere with her before Saturday night when Veronica hosted their two-person pajamas party.

While the girls were locked away in the luxury suit, Archie and Jughead meet up outside Archie's house to make a plan. With Betty locked away for the night they had a chance to check her tracks and find out what was going on.

"Where do we start?" Jug asked as Archie checked his phone and put it away.

"Veronica promised to keep me updated all night. I'll suggest we start with Cheryl, she has gotta know something." Jug agreed and they sought out Cheryl at the Thornhill. She was dressed in a long silk robe and looked very annoyed to be interrupted in whatever dramatic act she had been doing.

"How may I help you gentlemen?" she asked with her signature frown. Jug was about to sneer something but Archie took the word.

"What is going on with you and Betty." Cheryl pretended to look surprised but when neither of them bought her act her face fell back into a scowl.

"That doesn't concern you. What are you doing here anyway?" She crossed her arms over her chest and Jughead couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"Figuring out what you and Betty are doing running around town at night, obviously." She glared at him.

"I don't know what you are talking about. As far as I am concerned, Betty's parents hasn't let her out of the house since she returned and I don't see that changing. Now I am only going to say this once: Stay out of my cousin's business or you will become my business okay?" She asked harshly enough to make both boys back off, afraid to face Cheryl Blossom's wrath. Hesitantly they retreated back to their car and drove off.

They went to Greendale next, equired with a pair of fake IDs that Archie got from Doyle to get into the club Jug had seen Betty at. They asked around for a clue but no one seemed to recognize her beside the bartender who wasn't very informative.

"Yeah she has been here a few times." He said when Archie showed him the picture on his phone.

"And?" Archie pushed and he shrugged.

"Passion Martini." He answered as if to explain everything. Archie raised a brow and the bartender sighed.

"She comes in with this rough looking guy, stays around for an hour or two and then leaves with the same guy. Honestly I get a lot of costumers, don't keep track on them." Archie didn't let go that easy.

"You must remember something?" He looked at the picture carefully then shrugged again.

"She has dyed her hair red, almost the same color as you and then she meets up with this old guy. He is fit but you know, a tad too old for her." Archie felt excitement shoot through him at finally getting somewhere.

"What does he look like?" The bartender wrinkled his nose and did a crack with his neck.

"Latino? Not very tall but very intimidating. I don't really know what else to tell you." Archie sighed and meet up with Jughead at the exit.

"Found anything?" Jughead shook his head.

"Nothing more than a playboy confirming to have seen a hot redhead around. Gave me nothing else, what about you?" Archie shook his head, about to tell him about the bartender, then froze. Two bickers were hanging around the parking-lot and they had their eyes fixated on Jughead's Serpent patch.

"Jug?" he asked and Jughead turned around and froze when he saw them too.

"Goullies." He whispered just as they started to approach him.

"Serpent, a little out of you territory don't you think?" one of the sneered and Jug held up both hands.

"We don't want trouble, just looking for a girl." The other snorted.

"Yeah ain't we all. Tell me when you find a good one." Jug frowned but then remembered Betty had talked to two Goullies on the night he had seen her here. He decided to test his luck.

"We are looking for a redhead actually, maybe you know her? She is from Riverdale, northsider." The Goullie narrowed his eyes then chewed on something before looking around pretending to be uninterested.

"Hot little thing? Narrow hips, tiny waist, big damsel eyes?" Jug nodded, that sounded like Betty. The goullie shrugged.

"Yeah we know her but what is she to you?" Jug made a light shrug.

"She is a friend, I think she might be in trouble." The two bickers laughed.

"I'll tell you one thing: Isolde Blossom isn't in trouble she is trouble, she runs it like a well moistened machine."

"Isolde Blossom?" Archie asked before jug could stop him.

"Yeah Cheryl Blossom's sister." Archie frowned.

"No, Cheryl doesn't have a sister, she had a brother but-" Jug cut him off.

"No, no I remember Isolde, but I think she might be a cousin. You remember Cheryl's father had a brother right?" He asked Archie and sent him a 'shut the fuck up and agree with me look' which luckily Archie understood. He nodded slowly.

"Right, I think I do remember. Same age as Cheryl and Jason right?" Jug nodded but the Goullies didn't care for their bad acting.

"Look we don't care if she is a sister, a cousin or a goddamn grandmother. She is a Blossom and you don't mess with Blossoms unless you want to get burned. Isolde is no different, actually she is worse. Got that ice cold Blossom blood in her veins. I thought you said you knew this chick?" Jug wanted to get out of there without blowing their cover any further.

"Thought we did." He mumbled then felt himself frown but he decided he had used enough luck for one night.

"Thank you, I appreciate the gesture." He told them and they shrugged, letting the boys leave without trouble.

"So what the hell was that?" Archie asked on the way home and Jug rolled his head and threw a defiant gaze out the window.

"Betty is obviously dressing up as Cheryl's whatever and pretending to be a Blossom. Explains the wig and the involvement with Cheryl. Doesn't explain her business in Greendale, or her involvement with the Goullies." Arhcie gripped the wheel tighter.

"Why do I get the feeling this is just the top of it?" Jug didn't say anything he just nodded, feeling the same feeling come over him.

They went to Doyle next, and confronted him about his meetings with Betty. At first, he denied everything but after Archie showed him against a wall he started spilling everything he had.

"Okay okay, I was just teaching her how to fire a gun alright?" Archie felt his brows furrow.

"Fire a gun?" Doyle nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, there is a shooting range under the old garage. She just wanted to be able to defend herself, so I taught her okay?!" Archie's jaw clenched.

"Did you give her a gun?" Doyle shook his head frantic.

"No, dude I swear, I would never-" Archie didn't care to hear the rest. He let Doyle drop to the ground and then the two boys went to Riverdale high and snuck in after hours to see if there was anything in the press room. They didn't find any clues as to what Betty had been doing, what they did find was pretty crappy journalism and even worse articles.

"Well it makes sense she doesn't have time to make a quality school paper when she is running around with Joaquin all the time." Archie didn't answer to that, instead his phone vibrated and he quickly checked it, knowing it might be the girls.

"Veronica says they are going to bed, it is 2:17 am. Nothing seems off and Betty just went to sleep." Jug leaned back in the chair and rested his feet on the table in front of him.

"There is so many missing pieces, I don't even know where to start." Archie nodded.

"I know… We should make a list. Might help keep some structure." Jug furrowed his brows but nodded, not against the idea. Archie fished out his phone and made a note.

"Okay so first things first, what do we need to know?" Archie asked and Jug frowned.

"Well… What really happened with the hood?" Archie frowned and shook his head.

"I think we got that covered, at least the big parts. But Betty might know who he is and I think that should be the first question." Jug nodded and Archie wrote down: "Who is the black hood?"

"Okay next?" Jug turned around on the chair.

"What is she doing with Cheryl Blossom?" Archie shrugged.

"Running around doing shady business? I'll write it down tho." He tapped away on the phone.

"Okay, I think it is pretty important to know what her thing in Greendale is too." Jug nodded.

"And why she is pretending to be Isolde Blossom?" Archie tapped that down as well.

"And most of all: How does she find the time for all of this?" Jug nodded thoughtfully then felt a yawn pressing.

"Maybe we should head to bed?" Archie asked, feeling exhausted as well. Jug nodded, not wanting to let it go but also feeling worn out. He rode back from Archie's and parked at the trailer. FP was out again so he quietly got in and passed out on the couch without much fuss. He woke up to the phone ringing.

"Yes?" he asked and heard Archie on the other end.

"Jug? Ronnie called, she woke up and Betty is gone. She has looked all over the apartment but she isn't there." Jug groaned and sat up, looking at the clock. It read 6.34 am.

"I am coming, we'll meet there." He said and threw on some clothes, started his bike and speed to the hotel where Archie was waiting out front leaning against his dad truck.

"What is up? Why aren't you inside?!" Archie scratched his neck and looked sheepish.

"Uhm… Ronnie texted when I was on my way here. Apparently Betty just went to get some air and came back inside right after I called you." Jug felt speechless but couldn't be angry at Arch for waking him up.

"So she is alright?" Arch nodded.

"Yeah they are making pancakes, Ronnie asked if we wanted some?" Jug shook his head.

"No thanks, I think I'll just go get some sleep of something." Arch nodded and saw him off before driving back home himself.

Jug arrived back at the trailer and spotted his dad's bike outside. He figured his father would probably be moping around with a hangover, ruining his plans of sleep. When he got in those thoughts were confirmed as the older Jones looked at him grumpily.

"What the hell are you doing, coming home at this hour?" he demanded and Jug held up both hands.

"Coming from you? I was home all night, just had to run a few errands." FP lifted an eyebrow.

"Before the sun? Damn boy you are worse than your old man." Jug snorted.

"I doubt that." FP was about to bite back when the door slammed open and none other than Penny Peacock came storming in. Both men readied themselves for a fight but Penny just stood there, flustered and angry.

"You…!" she fumed in rage and FP raised a brow in question. She took a deep breath the continued.

"I am here to say that all favors to me has been settled. With a special regards from Isolde fucking Blossom!" she spat then stormed back out, seeming furious and outraged. Jughead stared after her.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked out loud and FP gave him a dark look.

"It means Jenny has been overthrown. Whatever we owed her we now owe to Isolde Blossom. What I would like to know is: Who the fuck is Isolde Blossom?" Jug gave him an equally dark look back.

"You don't want to know." FP grumbled and took another painkiller, squezzing his eyes and giving jug a disapproving stare.

"Is she going to be a problem?" Jug thought about then shook his head.

"No more than she already is." FP frowned.

"I didn't know there even was an Isolde Blossom." He said but was more of a question and Jug shook his head again, looking out the window where Penny was slowly disappearing in the distance by foot.

"There wasn't until recently." His dad looked at him confused and Jug shook his head. "She isn't first link to the Blossoms we know but she is blood related, you just know her by another name. I'll take care of it." He promised and his father got another dark look on his face.

"Don't mess it up more than it already is." Jug just rolled his eyes, sick and tired of being babied but didn't have the energy to argue with his father. Now he just wanted to sleep.


	13. What he doesn't know

Veronica rolled her eyes for the millionth time.

"Yes, I asked him again. He insists that she didn't leave the hotel!" She insisted as Archie intorigated her yet again.

"Why won't you trust me?" she asked outraged and he looked at her ridiculed.

"Because you fell asleep and lost Betty when your only job was to watch her?" Veronica threw her hands in the air.

"Well sorry I don't run on caffain and pick me up's! I closed my eyes for five minutes and she was gone! André insists she was with him in the reception lounge, I don't see the problem!" Archie sighed and ran a hand trough his hair.

"The problem is Penny Peacock was thrown over by Isolde Blossom, aka Betty, on Saturday night, when you were supposed to be watching her!" He whisper-yelled back. They had pulled into the music room so he had to be quiet if they didn't want people in the hall to hear them.

"I am sorry okay? But you can check the survelliance fottage if you don't believe me, she didn't leave the hotel! Maybe she isn't Isolde Blossom? I mean that whole theory is fucked up and you got it from junckies." Archie rolled his eyes.

"It is the only explanation that makes sense! Why else would she be wearing a red wig?" Veronica threw her hands up again.

"Why did she wear a black one? Betty obviously got a thing for role play!" Archie shook his head.

"It is more than that! We need to figure out what is going on with Cheryl."

"Did I hear my name?" They whipped around to find Cheryl in the doorway with a smirk. "I wanted to promote my champaign for prom queen! I hope I can count on your vote?" She snarked sweetly. Veronica took the flyer and frowned. It was a picture of Cheryl at homecoming with '#Cherylbomshell' printed on it.

"Didn't know you had any competition?" Cheryl just smiled sweetly.

"You havn't heard the news? It seems my very own cousin is going to give me a run for my money. Not that I mind, it was getting boring knowing I'd win every time." She flipped her hair. "Remember to vote!" she declared and skipped back out.

"So Betty is running for prom queen?" Archie asked to Veronica who examined the folder.

"Apprently, that is very… un-Betty." Archie nodded and took the folder from her.

"Very. So Cheryl?" Veronica shrugged.

"I guess I'll go talk to her." She sighed and excused herself as the bell rang.

* * *

"Jug, we need to talk." Tony said as she sat opposite of him at lunch a few days later.

"You don't say?" She gave him a stern look.

"It is about Betty." He starred at her blankly waiting for her to continue. Everything was about Betty these days, "She came in the other day, with someone other than Joaquin!" She hissed and Jug raised a brow.

"And?" Tony looked around.

"It looked a lot like Hiram Lodge." Jug was about to choke on his own spit.

"Hiram Lodge!?" He exclaimed and she hushed him and nodded.

"But what would she-?" Tony cut him off.

"There is more." He looked like he didn't believe there could be anything more shocking but stayed silent. "I talked to Sweet Pea and had him shadowing her a little."

"You what?" She held up a hand to stop him.

"I had him follow her okay? And guess what?" Jug just looked at her then motioned eagerly for her to continue. "Aside from some very shade trips to Greendale, where do you think Betty goes every morning before school?" Jug shrugged.

"A secret layer on the southside?" he guessed.

"Close." She noted, "She runs by Hiram's hotel, I am geussing his suite. Every morning before the sun breaks." Jug frowned, could that be where Betty had been spending her nights? In Hiram Lodges bed, or maybe the couch in his office? The mere thought made Jug sick to his stomach.

"Does he know what they are doing?" She shook her head.

"No, he doesn't go inside." Jug frowned but knew he wasn't going to get anything out of pushing Toni. Instead he changed the subject.

"Do you know what is going on with her and Cheryl?" Toni blushed at the mentioning of the fierce haired beaty but shook her head.

"No, Cheryl says they are just having quality time. How Betty managed to purchase that mustang is beyond me." Jug frowned and looked at her confused.

"Wait what? I thought the car was Cheryl's?" Toni shook her head.

"The Blossoms are kind of low on cash currently. The mustang belongs to Betty, but she can't park it at her house so Cheryl drives it home." Jug furrowed his brows, getting more and more mystified as time passed.

"I am sorry, I think I have to find Betty." Tony grabbed his wrist.

"Jug? Be careful, whatever Betty is scheming, it can be good if it involves Hiram Lodge." He looked at her inridicusly.

"It is Betty, whatever it is, it can't be that bad." But even as Jug said it he didn't belive it himself. He went looking for Betty, without really wanting to find her, cause if he did, he didn't know what to say to her. He didn't exactly plan on running into Reggie instead but he did.

"Watch it, serpent." Reggie sneered. Jug sighed and rolled his eyed but decided to ask anyway.

"Where is Betty?" Reggie looked furious as her name fell from Jug's lips.

"Why would I want to tell you?" He grumbeled.

"Because, I bet you too want to know what Betty does at Hiram Lodges hotel every morning." Reggie didn't seem surprised, he crossed his arms and looked at Jug with a smirk.

"Nope, but it sounds like you do." Jug grimazed.

"Are you going to tell me?" Reggie shrugged and took some time to study Jug then he sighed.

"Alright, I'll tell you, but don't say I never do anything for you. Betty is getting selfdefense lessons from Hiram's security guard André. Nothing weird, so you can go and leave her alone now." Jug felt ridiculous. Of course Betty wasn't sleeping with Hiram Lodge. He left school feeling better. Surely everything she was doing had a logical explanation? Self-defense and cousin-ly qualitytime didn't exactly reek of evil, but then how did she buy that mustang? And what was she doing in Greendale? Buying school supplies? No, something was still up, but at least it had nothing to do with Hiram lodge, or at least so Jug thought.


	14. Peace comes from the chimney

Jug went to the Wyrm on Thursday. Archie went with him although he was a little vary about entering Serpent territory. FP was behind the bar, handing Archie a beer and Jug a soda. Jug looked at his father with anger and FP smirked.

"You're driving. Can't ride a bike and get wasted on the same night." He advised and Jug grumbled.

"Never stopped you." He noted which FP choose not to hear. It was a good night, everyone was in a good mood, the bar was full and no one had heard from Penny in days, which probably meant she had left town. He was being happy and generous and it was rubbing off. The mood suddenly changed however when Toni made her way to the bar with a sour expression on her face.

"FP? We got a problem, Ghoulies just pulled up." She bit out and FP's face darkened.

"Ghoulies? How many?" he asked out in the room which had gone quiet as the other guests noticed and some started peaking out the windows.

"Half a dozen. We got another problem as well, this one might be worse: Blossoms just arrived to the party." An older Serpent growled from the window. Everyone seemed to hold their breath, a couple already grabbing their knives. The bell rang and the door opened. A few Ghoulies spilled in, none of them seem threatening but they also looked intimidating. Then two redhaired girls followed. One of them was Cheryl Blossom unmistakably, the other was harder to recognize. With a long red braid hanging over her shoulder and bangs framing her face, her eyes painted with heavy eyeliner. Even Jug didn't recognize her imminently but Archie did, this was without a doubt Betty Cooper, but he wasn't about to out her. He was slightly intrigued by this and wanted to know what would happen. She gestured someone in and a tall young man entered, carrying a painted reindeer scull.

"We wanted to return this. A peace offering if you want. Penny Peacock is no longer leading the Ghoulies and we wanted to show you our good will." She said and nodded to the scull. FP looked at her warily with squeezed eyes then motioned for Sweet Pea to step forward and take the scull. The Ghoulie handed it over without trouble.

"And who are you? Why are you really retuning a scull you stole from this bar 7 years ago?" FP asked and Betty made a sideway purse of her lips.

"I go by Isolde Blossom. I lead the Ghoulies now. And this scull… Well we don't want to continue the war with the Serpents. It is bad for business." She explained and FP furrowed his brows.

"Business is why we are even in this war to begin with." Betty or Isolde, smirked like she held a valuable secret.

"Well lets say we have moved on from previous primitive tactics. Point is – we don't want anymore bad blood." She steeped forward and then she did something no one expected. She held her hand out for FP to shake. He hesitated only a moment, then he took it in a firm grip.

"Well lets get a round for our reversed enemies!" he declared getting a round of applause from the bar. Toni jumped behind the counter and helped pouring up shots.

"Is it just me-" Sweet Pea asked, getting up behind Jughead, "or does Isolde Blossom look a whole lot like Betty Cooper?" Archie smiled at the floor.

"What do you say? Pea isn't blind after all! That is Betty you idiot!" Toni hissed over the counter and Pea looked genuinely surprised.

"Really? But why does she call herself Isolde?" He asked ridiculously.

"Well that is what we are trying to figure out." Jug answered and took another swig of his soda as he watched Betty/Isolde and Cheryl take shots with his father and fellow serpents.

"Betty wait up!" Archie called as Betty and Cheryl exited the bar. Betty looked around as if to see if anyone heard.

"Don't call me that!" she hissed and Archie rolled his eyes.

"I think everyone knows, you need something better than a wig to hide that." Betty scowled but flipped her hair.

"What do you want?" Archie looked at her then the mustang.

"You guys are both too drunk to drive." He stated.

"I am not, and I can get Joaquin to drive if you are so worried." Archie shook his head.

"He went as heavy on the shots as you did. Jug is wasted too but I only had one beer. Why don't I drive, we can drop Cheryl off and then I'll drive us home. We can pick you up tomorrow?" he asked Cheryl who shrugged and looked at Betty.

"Fine by me." Betty sighed and held out the keys, which he grabbed imminently. He drove Cheryl home as promised but instead of taking the quickest route home to his and Betty's houses he went on a little detour.

"So this, Isolde Blossom thing you got going on – What is the point? The big finale?" Betty sighed and rolled her eyes at the dark.

"Arch, you are my oldest friend, and I love you dearly, but Arch – don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong." She advised and Archie shook his head.

"Betty this isn't you. You don't go running gangs and hanging out with Cheryl Blossom." Betty shrugged.

"Everything – all of this – it is just a means to an end. And the end is near trust me on that." She promised and Archie got an uncanny feeling.

"What is happening Betty?" he asked her nervously and she smirked.

"Life works in mysterious ways… Sometimes it attacks you walking home from school and sometimes it locks you up in a basement and tries to torture you into marrying it. Sometimes it takes a fake name to get some results. Mysterious ways Arch, mysterious ways." She repeated. He gave up getting more out her and drove them home.

"Where are you going tonight?" he asked as he parked the car. She looked over with a sneaky smile.

"Wouldn't you like to know? I can't tell you all my secrets Arch, it would ruin all the fun." She told him and walked off. He locked the car but didn't go inside. Something was off, more than usual. The last few weeks Betty hadn't been Betty, but she hadn't not been Betty either. This person he just talked to? Definitely not Betty. But what was up with that?


	15. Transporting diplomacy out of thown

"Wait, hold up a minute: So Reggie knows that Betty is taking self-defense lessons from André? What else does he know about? Did he tell you about anything else?" Archie asked Jug the next day at school.

"No idea bro, I didn't ask him." He answered with a shrug as if he hadn't just blown their big oprotunity.

"And it didn't occur to you that he might know everything that is going on with her?" Jug looked away as he realized his own idiocy.

"Look I can't ask him okay? Reggie hates me!" He hissed to Archie, who seemed unfazed by the rivalcy between two of his best pals..

"Then I'll do it, but I need you to do me a favor first." Jug looked at him confused.

"Sure what do you need?" Archie bit his lip.

"I need you to talk to Joaquin again. Not about Betty, about Greendale. I need to know what is in the transfers that they do on the harbor." Jug furrowed his brows.

"Why?" Archied looked at him darkly almost ashamed to admit it.

"Because my dad is helping with the transportation of those boxes. In daylight ofcourse, but I don't think he knows what is really in them or that it is what he thinks it is." Jug didn't say anthing but nodded to tell Archie he would. Secretly Jug had forgotten completely about Greendale, but now he remembered why he had started to doubt Betty and her intetions in the first place. Greendale was a shady place where shady people went to do all of their shady business, people like Penny Peacock and the goulies. If Betty had taken over Penny's gig then chances was she too was smuggeling drugs in and out of Greendale.

It wasn't a thing he liked to discuss with Joaquin, but he wouldn't let Arhcie down when he had asked for help, so he did what any serpent would. He went to FP Jones for help.

To say FP wasn't trilled was an understatement. He was straight up pissed and with good reason.

"I don't want you to get involved, stay out of it Jug." He ordered and Jug threw up his hands feeling hopeless and useless.

"Are you going to at least tell me what you are going to do?" FP shook his head, but then thought the better of it. The more he kept it secret the more Jug would want to ind out.

"I am taking a chat, first with Joaquin and then with Betty. I am having a hard time placing her as a harcore druglord but in this thown nothing surprises me anymore. I don't want you to end up in the middle Jug, your record is still clean and I'd like it to stay that way. Don't do anything rash without checking with me first." Jug nodded but they both knew that once he got involved in something he wasn't going to ask anyone for anything least of all permission.

To his surprise his father did do something about it. He came home from hanging with Tony one night to find Betty emerging from the trailer. She was dressed like Betty, the old Betty, with her pastel blue dress with a shirt collar and lightbrown oxford shoes. Her hair in a pony, she was the ghost of a girl he hadn't seen in a long time. She looked up, surprised to see him but then turned around to say goodbye to his father who had followed her out.

"I am really glad we got this sorted out FP." She said with a sincer smile and his father nodded hands in his pockets.

"As am I, I'd really like if we could finally make peace." He said and she giggled and smiled warm and heartfelt.

"I promise that is all we want too. Please come to me if there is anything else. Communication is key." She offered and he nodded.

"Goodnight Betty, get home safe. And please say hello to your mother from me." He asked.

"Ofcourse, I am sure she'd want me to pass on her best wishes. Goodnight Mr. Jones." She called and skipped past Jughead to the car that was parked on the other side of the street, reminding Jug that she might look like Betty but she wasn't her. At least not the Betty Jug knew. That Betty didn't drive a red mustang.

"You talked with her?" He asked his father who nodded thoughtfully.

"I did." Jug made a questioning shrug of his shoulders.

"And?" FP didn't move a muscle.

"She assured me nothing was going on. She is lying trough her teeth. I'd give her credit for the preformance tho, remarkable even for her." Jug grimanced.

"What makes you think she is lying?" The older serpent grinned at his question.

"I talked to Joaquin. Apparently, Betty has been making trips to Greendale for weeks, several times a week, and it is most definitely drugs. He hasn't seen them but he has been there at the transfers and the money and the code, well he didn't doubt it. I don't think she is bringing them into Riverdale tho, she is too smart for that. Probably has a market in Greendale or somewhere nearby." Jug felt confused again.

"Then what is Fred transporting?" FP made a face.

"That is what I trying to figure out. We are gonna have to open the box I am afraid." Jug shook his head.

"How are we going to do that?" FP shrugged carelessly.

"We call Fred." He stated as if that was obvious.

And they did. The next day Jug skipped school to go visit Fred with his father. Archie was already there waiting at the truck were a big box was loaded much like the one they picked up once upon a time when Penny was their biggest problem.

"That is the beast?" FP asked Fred who nodded.

"Yeah that is it. I picked it up on Greendales harbor this morning. You really think that this is-?" The question hung in the air. Fred didn't want to belive he had been smuggeling drugs for a few weeks now. FP shreaded his jacket and grabbed a breaking tool. The other men copied and together they got the box opened through much struggle and effort.

"What the hell?" Fred exclaimed and searched through the hay. "It is empty!" he looked at the other men in disbelief. FP frowned and shook his head. Stepping up to search it himself. He reached into the box with both hands and searched until at last he got his hands on something. He pulled out a pipe, one used to contain important papers like building plans. Frowning deeply he pulled the cap off and pulled out several sheets of paper that he imidently examined.

"It is the contrstuction plans of the entire harbor I Greendale, southside high and the sisters mercy monestary. What on earth is Betty gonna do with that?" he asked, feeling more confused than ever. For once Jug wasn't, he had the answer.

"Not Betty," he said and they all looked confused and expectantly. "Hiram Lodge. Betty has been meeting him at his hotel every morning. I bet that is her big plan, getting involved with Hiram and his prison plan." He explained and Fred's expression darkened.

"In that case we need to stop her." He stated, looking prepared to take on just about anything to protect his thown.

"I'll talk to her," Archie stated. "First Reggie and then Betty. I'll see if I can find out what it is about and ask her to stop it. If she won't talk or she won't listen then we'll go to Veronica and ask for her help instead." He said and they all agreed. Hopefully diplomacy was the way to go in this.


	16. Betty the unsolvable enigma

Archie didn't waste time. He went to Reggie the next day.

"Hey Reggie! I was wondering, you don't happen to know where Betty is going this Saturday do you? I overheard her talking to Cheryl about something out of thown. I just felt a little worried when I heard, I mean they haven't caught the hood yet…" he trialed off, hoping he came off as a concerned friend and not a snooping detective.

"Leave it to me to worry. I got it Andrews." Reggie called confidently and Archie frowned, hoping to get more information out of the football player.

"Well it is just, you can't tell anyone, but I caught her sneaking out of her room the other day and-" Reggie smiled in thriump.

"Yeah she did, so she could go to see me." He stated and Archie raised both brows.

"You?" When and where Betty even found the time to date Reggie before all of this greendale stuff was beyond him, and between her shady business? It didn't make sense that she could go to school, be on the cheerteam, do material arts leasons, edit the schoolpaper, go clubbing with Cheryl, run a drugcartel and have a boyfriend, all while her parents seemed to be over her like hawks.

"Her parents don't want her going out at night, so she sneaks out sometimes and we go for a drive in the mustang or in my car." He explained with a small smile that was unusually cute for him.

"You know about the mustang?" Archie asked surprised. He had foolishly assumed Reggie was as much in the dark as the rest of them.

"Why wouldn't I? It was a gift from the Blossoms, to comfort her or something, she doesn't want her parents to know about it. You know with their family feud and all." He said and Archie understood Reggie while knowing more than most about Betty's parttime hobbies still didn't know everything.

"Right and how often do you...?" He asked letting the question hang in the air and Reggie shrugged.

"Two times a week? She is busy with André and cheerleading and the schoolpaper and the trial and yeah, all of that." He added with an overbearing shrug. Clearly he wanted more, but understood that Betty was too busy to engage more in their relationship than she already did. Archie figured Reggie probably didn't know what she did on all her other nights though, or perhaps he wouldn't be so felixible about it.

"She never mentions Hiram Lodge does she?" He asked trying to make it sound like a natural question but Reggie looked at him weirdly.

"No, why would she? Betty hates Hiram, she recents this entire prison thing, you know that." He said as if abvious and Archie nodded.

"Of course, Betty loves Riverdale, what Hiram plans to do will ruin the thown."

"Right," Reggie said and pointed to the door with his thump. "I gotta go Andrews, but see ya around?" Archie nodded and Reggie headed for the door but then he turned around and called out to Archie again.

"I almost forgot! Betty wants to know if you and Veronica wants to have a pre-party before the dance next Friday? We are going in the mustang and thought it might be fun if you guys joined." He explained and Archie nodded, surprised but delighted.

"Sure, I mean, I have to ask Ronnie but I can't see why not. The girls love each other." He said and Reggie nodded with a smirk glad to have some good news to give Betty.

"Great, I'll tell her it is final then. Talk to you later!" he called out over his shoulder and then bolted from the lockerroom.


	17. Help, the girl nextdoor is a mobster!

"Betty! It is nice to see you. I haven't been able to catch you lately, you seem to be busy." Fred Andrews commented to Betty when he meet her early Monday morning outside the Cooper house. It was before sunrise and Betty was wearing sweats and a tank top along with running shoes. Not exactly criminal master mind attire. The only thing unusual was the hour, Fred himself was only up due to a few projectplans he had to have done by noon. He had run into an unforseen problem and god help him, he didn't know how to fix it. It was times like these that he missed Hermione and her creative mind, but dealing with the Lodges was a mistake he wouldn't commit twice.

"Mr. Andrews! No I have been so busy lately, with the trial and what not. You know how it is, dealing with the court and police. I swear it is as if they need to be told everything at least twenty times before they note it down. Anyway, I don't mean to bother you with all that. How may I help you?" she asked cheerfully, without commenting that it was highly unusal for her to see him outside at this hour of the day.

"Well Betty, as you know there is an election coming. With the Lodges going for the post as mayor, some people thought it be good with a real alternative, and I was encouraged to run. I trust that I can count on your support? It is going to a though couple of weeks, I'd like to have a friendly face around." He asked, not letting on too much, hoping the girl he knew would be the one to answer him. Betty lit up in a bright smile. It was wierd to think she had been through so much, she seemed to be better than ever.

"Yes of course! Archie told me you were running for mayor! I do belive that you will win, after all no one wants to live in a prison town." She comforted and he frowned, disturbed by how easily she was finding it to lie. Just as he was about to answer her, someone interrupted them.

"Elisabeth? Are you ready?" It was Mr. Hiram Lodge's bodyguard André. He was standing there in workout clothes with a netural look on his face. Fred couldn't read whatever or not he was noting things to report back to his employer. Betty didn't seem wierded out by the tall man.

"André, I told you to call me Betty!" She scolded with a bright smile and turned back to Fred to tell him goodbye.

"I am sorry, but I have to go, but please just let me know if there is anything I can do to help with the election! You definitly have my parents votes, I promis. I won't let them vote for anyone else." She told him seeming sincer, then ran off with André, leaving Fred feeling more confused than he had before. Was this really Betty, the sweet insecure girl his son had befriended? The inocent child that had run around in his backyard and who he had grown to think of as a relative? Betty was the closest thing to a daughter Fred would ever get, and no part of him wanted to belive she was capable of lying to his face and getting involved with Hiram Lodge, but evidence told a clear story. Getting picked up for a morning run by Andrè? Betty was already deep in with the Lodges as far as he could tell. It was only a matter of time before she was entirely corrupted if she wasn't already.


	18. Shooting a prompicture

It was the night of the dance. Reggie drove up to Betty's house in the Mustang and Archie went outside to greet him. Both were handsome dressed in their smokings and both were incredibly nervous to pick up their dates. They knocked together on the door and Mrs. Cooper greeted them with a smile and showed them inside calling for the girls who came down the stairs looking stunning as ever. Betty was dressed in a silver satin gown with a halterneck and her blond hair was done in a loose updo with curls hanging out. Veronica wore a wine red dress with a sweetheart neckline and her hair was done in loose curls to frame her face. The boys were breathless until Mr. Cooper showed a glass of champagne in each of their hands. They stayed politely for 30 minutes to talk with Betty's parents and took pictures then headed off in the mustang.

Everything went as planned. Veronica preformed with the pussycats, Archie played a single from his collection and Betty and Reggie was voted Prom queen and king. Betty offered for Cheryl to share the crown, but Cheryl insisted it was Betty's moment to shine. Afterwards they went to Thornhill for the party that Cheryl had promised to throw and a party it was indeed. In their formal wear with too much booze for them to handle and a little to many hormones in the air.

"Vodka?" Archie asked Betty nodding to her cup with clear liquid as they stood in a crownded group.

"Gin and tonic." She answered and he nodded, tho his head was swimming he could still tell when she lied. That, and he caught her purring water in her cup in kitchen earlier.

"Any plans later?" he asked her and she looked at him surprised and with a hint of fear before shaking her head with an easy smile.

"No, Reggie is gonna take me home before midnight." He nodded, pretending to believe her. Going home with the boyfriend was a nice excuse for going to Greendale to deal drugs.

"Have a good evening Betty." He told her with a clap on the back before going to get more booze. Tonight, for once he didn't want to deal with her drama. He just wanted to get wasted and maybe find his girlfriend wherever she was.

The night was getting wilder and the party louder so eleven thirty Veronica Lodge went outside to draw some air. Walking around the house in the dark and still wearing her long dress she saw a figure in tight dark jeans and a black shirt with long sleeves. The blonde ponytail sticking out was the only indication of the identity. What on earth was Betty doing out here?

"Betty?" Veronica exclaimed before she could stop herself. The figure whipped around and Betty stared at Veronica with a calm expression.

"Hey V, what are you doing outside?" she purred and Veronica furrowed her brows feeling her head spin with confusion and alcohol.

"Me?I was... What are you doing out here? And what is up with the clothes?" Betty smiled, it was a creepy smile. One that sent chills down Veronica's spine.

"Changing to something comfortable. Go inside, V, I'll come join in a second." She told her sweetly and Veronica felt her gut turn but went inside anyway. She tried to find Archie who had dissapeared from her earlier but when she did she found him to be even drunker than herself.

"Archie? I just saw Betty outside she was acting really weird." She told him to which he responded with a look as if to say 'have you lost it?'.

"Betty is right over there." He nodded in direction of the punch table and Veronica had to sqeuze her eyes together in a thin line to be sure of what she was seeing. Indeed there was her best friend, with her long blonde curls, her prom queen crown and still wearing her silver gown, with her back to crowd, purring herself another cup.

"But I just saw her-" Veronica started to tell him but she was interrupted by a loud noise followed by screams from the young party attenders upstairs.

"Gunshot! Everyone out!" Kevin yelled in fear from upstairs then a row of sots were heard followed by screams and yells of terror and people started panicking. Veronica looked for her friend and saw a flimmer of silver material and blond hair disappearing in the crowd before she herself was dragged away by Archie.

"It is the hood." He yelled in her ear and she looked back at him to see fear and worry masking his face. Veronica worried Betty might still be inside, but with all the people running out she couldn't go back to check and she had to comfort herself with the fact that Betty had been heading for the exit last time she saw her. As they gathered outside however, while waiting for the police to arrive she was once again meet by dreed. Reggie was furiously yelling around and scanning the crowd and it became clear to her he was searching for Betty.

"Have you seen her?" he yelled as he spotted her and Archie and Veronica shook her head.

"She was headed for the backdoor I think. I lost her in the crowd." She said and Reggie's face fell and cracked with complete despair.

"That is the way the hood went!" He exclaimed and they all ran around the house to try and come to her recue but it was no avail. Betty and the hood were already gone.


	19. How to get away with murder

Hurried footsteps and light panting was all there was heard, as the blond girl in the silver dress ran trough the forrest with a lunatic killer hot on her heels. She had gotten quiet far, having shreed her heels to be able run fasterand hopefully get away, but the sticks and stones on the ground were cutting into her nylonstockclad feet at every steep. Unconcenrated for a moment as she ducked for a branch not to hit her in the face, she slipped on the wet leaves and fell over in her long dress. The man behind her slowed down and came to a halt as he closed in on his prey. Gasping in fear she whipped her head up and time stood still as the black hood came face to face with Polly Cooper.

"Sucks when someone highjacks your plans doesn't it?" A cold feminine voice sounded from behind and the hood whipped around to find Betty Cooper with her signature ponytail and a gun raised in her right hand, aiming at his head. She didn't hesitate, she just pulled the trigger. Perhaps the hood thought he'd have more time. Perhaps he thought she would say something more but she didn't and as he fell over dead on the forestfloor she felt a heavy weight being lifted from her chest so she could finally breath freely. Polly shrieked, although she expected it, she wasn't prepared to see her sister kill a man in cold blood. Betty looked her sister with a calm, dead expression and took off the backpack she had been carrying to throw it to her. Polly took the bag and quickly shreed off the silver colored dress, putting it in the bag and changing into the casual clothes Betty had brought for her.

"What now?" She asked and Betty shook her head.

"It is better if you don't know. Remember, you were at the farm all day as usual. You didn't see or hear anything." She instructed and Polly nodded and took off towards town without further questions. Betty looked at the corps and sighed, it would be a long night. She dragged him by his shoulders trough the woods, it was a long and slow process, but eventually she reached the passage where she had parked the run down car that Joaquin had helped her purchase without legimitation. She pushed the body into trunk and closed the lit then drove off to Fred's construction patch a few miles away where they were busy building common housing. They had already dug a hole and made the frame for the cement to be held into. She drove as close as she could, opened the trunk, pulled off the hood and snapped a few pictures with a disposable camera which she then put in a clear plastic bag. Then she pulled the body from the trunk and threw it directly in the hole, closed the lit and parked on the side. Getting in behind the wheel of the diggingmachine she used it to cover the body with a layer of dirt. Then she stamped it, put sand on top, adjusted it to an even layer, mixed the concrete and purred it out in a thick layer to make the foundament of the new building. It was though work but her dad had showed her how to do it when she was younger and she was able to complete it even with her lack of physical strenght. Once positive her secret was properly sealed she got back in the car and drove to the car cemertary nearby where she dumped the car in a spot where it would fit in with the other cars ready to be trashed. She carefully took her dress from the bag and stripped off her clothing and the plastic gloves she had been wearing, then put her dress back on and released her hair. The discharged clothes and the bag she dumped on the ground and soaked in Gasoline from a backup container in the trunk. One little swipe of a lighter was all it took and it went into flames. She watched, patiently as the remains turned into ashes, then she turned and walked to the nearest road in her high heels. She hitch-hicked a lift to town and found her way into pops. That was where her friends always meet up and she was abseloutly sure they would be there tonight. Hopefully Cheryl still had her phone, which she left at thornhill to avoid tracking. The only thing linking her to the murder was her sister and Polly would never rat her out. There wasn't even a body, she had done that part alone, and in secret.


	20. All in due time

She walked into pops and the moment the Bell rang Betty knew she had gotten away with it. She had killed her tormentor and gotten away with it too. So it was a natural and tired smile that crept onto her face as she was swammed with friends who all wished her the Best.

"My god Betty We were so worried!" Veronica exclaimed. They had used houres searching the forrest before Winding up here. Shortly after losing Betty they had heard a gunshot. Knowing the hood was armed they feared the worst and truth was they had been searching the river for a corps, Bettys.

Then here she was at Four am just walking in the door, safe and unharmed.

"I know, did you hear a gunshot too?" She asked pretending to be fright. Veronica nodded tears vieling up and Reggie pulled her into his embrace.

"We thougt…" Archie trailed off and realization drew on Betty.

"Oh, no I am sorry. But did anyone else get hurt?" she asked and the shook their heads.

"Not that we know of no." Archie informed and she nodded satisfied.

"Lets get you home, I am sure your parents are worried sick." Reggie said firmly and tightened his grip on her. He drove Veronica home first then took Archie and Betty home.

"Betty oh thank god, you are safe!" Alice exclaimed and took her daughter in her embrace. "Your father is still out looking for you." She added to which Betty nodded as she hugged her mother back.

"Thank you Reggie, for bringing her home." Alice told Reggie over Betty's shoulder.

"No problem mrs. Coop, you are sure you don't want me sticking around? At least until mr. Coop comes home, I mean with the hood still out there." Alice shook her head.

"No, we will be fine, don't you worry." She told him but Betty whimpered in her mothers arms.

"Please mom? I'd feel a lot better with Reggie here?" She begged and Alice sighed but she couldn't ignore her daughters plea, not when she just minutes ago thought she had lost her.

"Reggie you can stay in Polly's old room." She said and he thanked her and followed them into the living room where Alice placed them on the couch and covered Betty with a blanket before she went to call Hall. While she was in the kitchen it knocked on the door and the teenagers in the livingroom quieted their low talk to listen.

"Mrs. Cooper may I come in?" A deep male voice asked and Reggie looked at Betty for a response but she seemed calm as ever.

"Of course Sherif Keller. Please, I was just making tea but u can get you some coffee if you like?"

"No please. I just came by to tell you myself- oh hi Betty. I see you finally made it home." Sherif Keller said once he stepped into the kitchen from where he could see the blond girl and her boyfriend.

"Hi sheriff Keller. Yeah I got lost but someone offered me ride back." The sheriff just nodded, glad to find the girl in good shape.

"Should've have given us a call, we got a patrol out there looking for you, you know? Anyway, I just came by to tell you myself we arrested a man earlier this evening, who we believe are connected to the black hood." Betty furrowed both brows.

"Who if I may-" sheriff Keller shook his head.

"I am afraid I can't say, but he was in possession of a gun which matches some of the bullets found at Thornhill." Betty furrowed her brows as well.

"What do you mean some?" Sheriff Keller looked at her regretfully.

"Well Betty, you see, we have come to a bit of an obstacle in our investigation. It seems there is more than one black hood. There was several shooters at Thornhill tonight, we are working on finding all of them and hopefully one of them is connected to… to your hood." Betty frowned.

"But he.. I.." Everyone looked at her questionly.

"Yes Betty? Something you want to tell us?" he asked and she shook her head with a small smile as she remembered there could have been no mistake. The eyes, she would never forget those eyes, her hood was the hood now buried deep in the ground.

"No, I was just confused. It has been a long night. You don't think they'll come here do you?" she asked worried and the sheriff shook his head.

"No, don't you worry. I'll send a car to patrol around the block just in case." She nodded thankfully then heard the door slam.

"Betty, thank god!" It was her father, that stormed over to her filled with worry. He took her in his arms and sheriff Keller excused himself from the scene.

Peace fell over Riverdale for a bit, or at least for Betty it did. The entire thown was shaken by the shooting and the mysterious dissapearence of Hiram Lodge, and there would be no shady business with the cops all over town looking for the hoods in plural.

Archie and Jughead used the oprotunity to ask some important questions. To Joaquin, Cheryl, and everyone else who might know something. To their surprise everyone seemed very talkative all of a sudden.

"Betty? A druglord? Please! I am sure whatever they did in Greendale it was completely legal." Cheryl said when they talked to her.

"But how did she afford the mustang?" Jughead asked.

"It was a gift." Cheryl simply stated. Both boys felt confused.

"From who?!" Cheryl shrugged.

"A secret admirer she said. You ask me I'd say it was mr. Lodge. He had a thing for her anyway. Ever since she meet him in that bar they hit it off perfectly. I swear they were two parts of one whole damned soul. Anyway, Betty wasn't interested, but a man like Hiram likes to play before he eats." Archie and Jug felt equal parts digusted by the thought of Betty shacking up with Hiram, but at least it made sense.

"So that is what she did every morning at his hotel?" Cheryl shook her head.

"No I don't think he knew about that. André meet Betty on the night of her sleepover at Veronica's. I geuss he liked her like everyone else. Anyway he offered to teach her selfdefense. I guess she said yes." Jug nodded, that fit with what Reggie had told him. They left Cheryl and went after Kevin next. Kevin seemed rather clueless and a bit tired of questions.

"Look I told you everything I am allowed to and more. I can't help you!" he insisted. Jug frowned, he didn't trust that.

"So you don't know anything about Greendale?" Kevin bit his lip and sighed.

"We went clubbing a few times. No biggie." He insisted.

"Did she meet with anyone." Kevin looked around then spilled the beans.

"Okay fine! She meet there with Hiram Lodge a few times. I don't know what they talked about but he did order a damn lot of drinks for the table."

"Do you think they had something?" He frowned.

"Hiram and Betty? No way! She is actually into Reggie, I don't really get it but it works. He set her up with Doyle too." Jug frowned.

"Doyle?" Arhcie swore.

"Damit I forgot about that. Doyle took Betty to a shooting range. He said she just wanted to learn how to shoot."

"In the middle of the night?" Jug asked and Archie shrugged.

"That is when Betty has time." Which brought them to their next question – how did Betty have time for all this. But it seemed no one had the answer to that and Joaquin was nowhere to be found.

A week later tho, Betty once again emerged from her house in the late hours. She told her mother she would be staying at Thornhill, and had Cheryl pick her up. She didn't go to Thornhill however, she ended up on FP Jones doorstep so to speak.

"I need your help now." Was all she said and FP grabbed his jacket and a helmet for the girl and headed out. He took the bike and drove her to shadow lake where she had borrowed the keys and the kodes to the lodge lodge.

"Oh Betty why would you do this to yourself?" he asked as he put on the handcuffs, chaining her to the bathroom sink.

"I needed the time." She answered groggily, already feeling the effects of her cold turkey. FP sighed and made sure she was comfortable with an extra blanket on her madeshift bed in the bathroom. Then he made himself comfortable next to the toilet, which Betty would need soon enough.

"You can't tell anyone I am here." She told him seriously. He nodded seriously.

"Wouldn't dream of it. I am staying here with you." She glared at him.

"You don't-" he cut her off midsentence.

"I know how to do this better than anyone else. You need me here Betty, trust me." She didn't say anything. FP sighed and stood up to go get groceries. In a few hours Betty would be cranky, then mean, then aggressive. Chocolate and cheese helped for that.

On day two Betty called Cheryl to make sure she was still pretending they were together. Then FP checked in on Jug and they fell into silence again. By nighttime, Betty wished for death as she altered between hauling her guts into the toilet bowl and uneasy sleeping on the pillows in the bathroom. By Sunday morning she had threatened FP with murder and decapitation several times. Then everything calmed and by Sunday evening FP was ready to finally release her from the handcuffs. She showered and then he drove them back to Riverdale. She was welcomed home by her unsuspecting parents. Althrough she was still tired out she felt at ease. It seemed to Betty as though everything might just be okay.

On the southside however, someone who usually didn't ask any questions had a lot of question to be answered and he knew how to get them. Jug hadn't been able to seek out Joaquin but FP had other metods. In less than two hours to Serpents had dragged Joaquin from his hideout and to the white worm where FP waited for him.

"So, boy, I think it is time you spill the beans." He said and purred them both a wiskey as other serpents went to guard the door out of ear reach.

"Can't say no to my king can I?" Joaquin sneered with a glare.

"Hardly. So let me suggest you get started. The Goulies?" The young man shrugged.

"Easy to take over. They depend on drug money. Control the source you control the Goulies. Isolde got her hands on the source." FP took a sip and made a gesture.

"Right, Isolde Blossom, also known as Betty Cooper?" Joaquin didn't seem happy but knew he was cornered.

"She thought it was better to use another name. Can't have a kidnapping victim running a gang can you?" FP shrugged and asked again.

"So she dressed up in a red wig. How did she get her hands on the source?" Joaquins eyes lit up. Clearly this had his interest.

"That is the question isn't it? One would say luck, but Betty hasn't had the best of luck, so lets go with hard work. She had me help her seek out the trade. Cheryl helped her with some connections to her dads old partners. She got it done with a bit of cash that she borrowed from Hiram Lodge. One trade and she was able to pay it out. Then she had Greendale around her little finger. Until it went south one night of course. I got there a little late thanks to a visit from your son. The delivers got bold, or nervous I don't know. First they started shooting. Betty drew her gun and she is a damn good shot. Then the cops showed up and we had to run. I don't know how she got that shipment out of police custody but damn she is a criminal mastermind." FP nodded and purred another wiskey for them.

"Why did she need the Goulies tho?" He asked and Joaquin winched.

"She didn't, she nedded the money." FP frowned.

"For what?" the young serpent leaned back and shrugged.

"Guns? Cars? Her giant use?" FP nodded knowingly.

"The extercy. Did a real number on her during her detox. Don't think I have ever seen anyone hit so hard." The serpent smirked.

"Not surprised. She has been poping that stuff like it is candy for months on end now." FP prowned concerned for the young blond.

"Months? Without sleep?" Joaquin nodded and FP could see he was tired as well.

"She didn't need sleep she needed answers. And answers take time." FP shook his head and made a small gesture.

"You see that is what I don't get. What was she after? What did Betty need so badly she was willing to go to these lengths to get it?" Joaquin smirked knowingly.

"Isn't that obvious? What makes a teenage girl like Betty just come back from something like that? A kidnapping, torture, maybe rape? She needed revenge. Betty wanted the black hood's head and maybe his genitals on a platter. Can't say I blame her." FP smirked surperiorly.

"Wanted?" Joaquin didn't seem faced. He shrugged a little and downed his glass.

"You ask me? I'd say she got it. All of this ended the day after prom night. Betty is out now, there is no Isolde Blossom anymore. She went as she came – out of thin air." FP squeezed his eyes together a little at that.

"Than what happens to all she has build? You don't just retire from that." Jaoquin smirked. This was his moment to surprise the old snake.

"She has her school, her cheer, her boyfriend. Kept the car I heard." FP growled.

"You know what I mean! The Goulies! What happens to them." Joaquin still smirked.

"It has its perks to the right hand of a druglady." FP paled a little.

"You? She gave it to you?" Joaquin smirked wider and leaned forward.

"So now you realize the only reason I am here, answering questions is because I want to. You got any last questions now would be the time." FP sank a little but didn't show fear.

"Who is the hood." Joaquin shook his head still smiling.

"Don't know. But I think you want to ask: Who was the hood?"

"Was there ever a conspiracy with Lodge?" Joaquin shrugged.

"Isolde Blossom was an icecold bitch. Gonna miss her. She did what she had to do. I don't think building a prison was on her list tho." With that Joaquin stood up and left. No longer a young serpent but a young druglord, it felt to him he had the world open to him.


End file.
